Hip Hop Turns 50

My time was Motown, BB King

Every winter Motown had their Xmas show at the Fox theater in Brooklyn


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serendipity said:
Originally Posted by Taichiliberal View Post
I was a commuter student to the local 4 year college when "Rapper's Delight" was taking the airwaves by storm. Remember, this was in the days of FM/AM radio, where there were JUST A FEW STATIONS that ALL Americans listened to. It was also a time when music lovers were highly tribel. You had your rock listeners, acid rock, folk, country western, blue grass, gospel, soul, jazz, funk, R&B, Top 40 and the DeadHeads & DISCO heads (shudder). If I left out anyone, please forgive.

Anyway, I'm on the line to board the commuter bus to hit the morning classes, and some kid with a boom box (ahh, nostalgia) is blasting Rapper's Delight somewhere in the bus station. By this time, EVERYONE had heard this about a million times, and it was becoming somewhat of a joke. I turned to a buddy of mine and said, "If this crap really catches on, it'll be the death of black music in America as we know it". He replied, "You're crazy! This is just novelty stuff. It's never gonna be a mainstay."

Sadly, he was wrong. What has transpired in the last 50 years is a terrible lowering of standards within black music in America, if not the world. Literally any jackass with access to a quality tape recorder with a microphone and a little practice can be a "rapper". The Beastie Boys proved that. Music promotors loved it because it gave them a lion's share of 12% (at the time) of the populations record buying audience. And it was economical (at the time). No bus loads of equipment, no major lighting or major sound system checks.

The off shoot of this was "hip hop".... a severely watered down version of various black music styles coupled with rappers. Some of these groups actually came close to maintaining the standards set by giants like The Isley Brothers or Stevie Wonder or Gladys Knight. Close, but no cigar (IMHO, of course).

It just breaks my heart, because for decades before my birth and a few years after black Americans created and maintained a trend setting quality style of music that swept the world. Rap and Hip Hop took all of that away.
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Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Colman, Sam Brown, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Gloria Gaynor, Ella Fitzgerald and a whole host of black musicians who never lived to hear the worst black music ever.

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Agreed! So why did you "groan" at my previous post?
 
RB 60 said:
Do you like the Blues? This is good. Great guitar.

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About a decade ago, I read someone's personal critique of Joe. I paraphrase from memory, "...He hasn't really reinvented the guitar or blues. ...he just take his extensive guitar talent/knowledge and applied it, refining (not redefining) it with his own voice and twist to it."
 
NiftyNiblick said:
Miles could really blow--no true music lover could deny that.
He could write, too.

Still, the post bop era of Miles and 'trane was never quite as accessible to me, mentally,
as the pure bebop of Bird, Dizzy, and Monk.

There was no denying the craft, however.
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He had an operation on his throat in 1955 and was told by his doctor not to speak for 10 days to let it heal. But he got into an argument with someone and yelled, permanently damaging his vocal cords. His voice was forever changed into the hoarse, scratchy, half-whisper he is better known for, can't help thinking that coloured, no pun intended, his view of the world.
 
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Taichiliberal said:
About a decade ago, I read someone's personal critique of Joe. I paraphrase from memory, "...He hasn't really reinvented the guitar or blues. ...he just take his extensive guitar talent/knowledge and applied it, refining (not redefining) it with his own voice and twist to it."
Click to expand...

His own material isn't bad either. He has some talented background singers. One of them is Jimmy Barnes' daughter He does work with Jimmy as well.
 
Phantasmal said:
Have you ever listened to King King. I love Joe.
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Joe's playing in Reading. Tickets are $159 plus fees and bullshit (nearly $40). I was thinking about it, but I am having a hard time convincing the GF. We spent $350 to see Bryan Adams a month or so ago.
 
RB 60 said:
They say he has an extensive collection of guitars.
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He seems to like Gibson's guitars mainly but he collaborated with Epiphone, which is now owned by Gibson I might add, to produce a signature version of a 1962 cherry ES-355. I had several guitars before I came to Thailand but sold them and kept my Yamaha Studio Lord which is the equal of a Les Paul in build quality and sound.
 
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Taichiliberal said:
I was a commuter student to the local 4 year college when "Rapper's Delight" was taking the airwaves by storm. Remember, this was in the days of FM/AM radio, where there were JUST A FEW STATIONS that ALL Americans listened to. It was also a time when music lovers were highly tribel. You had your rock listeners, acid rock, folk, country western, blue grass, gospel, soul, jazz, funk, R&B, Top 40 and the DeadHeads & DISCO heads (shudder). If I left out anyone, please forgive.

Anyway, I'm on the line to board the commuter bus to hit the morning classes, and some kid with a boom box (ahh, nostalgia) is blasting Rapper's Delight somewhere in the bus station. By this time, EVERYONE had heard this about a million times, and it was becoming somewhat of a joke. I turned to a buddy of mine and said, "If this crap really catches on, it'll be the death of black music in America as we know it". He replied, "You're crazy! This is just novelty stuff. It's never gonna be a mainstay."

Sadly, he was wrong. What has transpired in the last 50 years is a terrible lowering of standards within black music in America, if not the world. Literally any jackass with access to a quality tape recorder with a microphone and a little practice can be a "rapper". The Beastie Boys proved that. Music promotors loved it because it gave them a lion's share of 12% (at the time) of the populations record buying audience. And it was economical (at the time). No bus loads of equipment, no major lighting or major sound system checks.

The off shoot of this was "hip hop".... a severely watered down version of various black music styles coupled with rappers. Some of these groups actually came close to maintaining the standards set by giants like The Isley Brothers or Stevie Wonder or Gladys Knight. Close, but no cigar (IMHO, of course).

It just breaks my heart, because for decades before my birth and a few years after black Americans created and maintained a trend setting quality style of music that swept the world. Rap and Hip Hop took all of that away.
Click to expand...

I enjoyed reading your thoughts there.

A couple of thoughts came to mind:

1) i feel like growing up, like you said, people tended to stick to one genre one music that they liked and listened too. I can totally remember kids/classmates and you knew exactly the type of music they liked. Today, even kids who grew up on country still listen to hip hop.

2) I can remember some kids carrying the boom boxes around Oakland. Don't know if you are a basketball fan but my freshman year in high school we played J.R. Ryder's school. He walked in to our gym with this massive boom box playing Dope Fiend Beat by Too Short. It's like time stopped when he entered. I can vividly remember it to this day.

For me, I loved hip hop growing up. I don't listen much to contemporary rap but you bring out the old school stuff and I know it all (and love it).
 
RB 60 said:
Originally Posted by Taichiliberal View Post
About a decade ago, I read someone's personal critique of Joe. I paraphrase from memory, "...He hasn't really reinvented the guitar or blues. ...he just take his extensive guitar talent/knowledge and applied it, refining (not redefining) it with his own voice and twist to it."
Click to expand...

His own material isn't bad either. He has some talented background singers. One of them is Jimmy Barnes' daughter He does work with Jimmy as well.
Click to expand...

That's cool. Not my cup of tea, but I'll give credit where credit is due.
 
cawacko said:
Originally Posted by Taichiliberal View Post
I was a commuter student to the local 4 year college when "Rapper's Delight" was taking the airwaves by storm. Remember, this was in the days of FM/AM radio, where there were JUST A FEW STATIONS that ALL Americans listened to. It was also a time when music lovers were highly tribel. You had your rock listeners, acid rock, folk, country western, blue grass, gospel, soul, jazz, funk, R&B, Top 40 and the DeadHeads & DISCO heads (shudder). If I left out anyone, please forgive.

Anyway, I'm on the line to board the commuter bus to hit the morning classes, and some kid with a boom box (ahh, nostalgia) is blasting Rapper's Delight somewhere in the bus station. By this time, EVERYONE had heard this about a million times, and it was becoming somewhat of a joke. I turned to a buddy of mine and said, "If this crap really catches on, it'll be the death of black music in America as we know it". He replied, "You're crazy! This is just novelty stuff. It's never gonna be a mainstay."

Sadly, he was wrong. What has transpired in the last 50 years is a terrible lowering of standards within black music in America, if not the world. Literally any jackass with access to a quality tape recorder with a microphone and a little practice can be a "rapper". The Beastie Boys proved that. Music promotors loved it because it gave them a lion's share of 12% (at the time) of the populations record buying audience. And it was economical (at the time). No bus loads of equipment, no major lighting or major sound system checks.

The off shoot of this was "hip hop".... a severely watered down version of various black music styles coupled with rappers. Some of these groups actually came close to maintaining the standards set by giants like The Isley Brothers or Stevie Wonder or Gladys Knight. Close, but no cigar (IMHO, of course).

It just breaks my heart, because for decades before my birth and a few years after black Americans created and maintained a trend setting quality style of music that swept the world. Rap and Hip Hop took all of that away.
Click to expand...


I enjoyed reading your thoughts there.

A couple of thoughts came to mind:

1) i feel like growing up, like you said, people tended to stick to one genre one music that they liked and listened too. I can totally remember kids/classmates and you knew exactly the type of music they liked. Today, even kids who grew up on country still listen to hip hop.

2) I can remember some kids carrying the boom boxes around Oakland. Don't know if you are a basketball fan but my freshman year in high school we played J.R. Ryder's school. He walked in to our gym with this massive boom box playing Dope Fiend Beat by Too Short. It's like time stopped when he entered. I can vividly remember it to this day.

For me, I loved hip hop growing up. I don't listen much to contemporary rap but you bring out the old school stuff and I know it all (and love it).
Click to expand...

I'm definitely older than you, so NOT growing up with this stuff being a mainstream in the music world gives me a better perspective as to the when, how and why's it became what it is today.

That would be a LONG post or two, and I don't think many people want to hear it.

But to music in general, to each their own. Live long and prosper.
 
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