>The first joints I memorized were Batterram and then Jam On
>It.

you remember the Wikka Rap (english dude came out on the beat to Jam On It?).


>I could windmill, backspin, centipede, pretty much all the
>regular b-boy moves.

i was only good for poppin' a lil bit (and on the east coast, 'popping' really meant electric boogaloo, waves and what not, not the shabbadoo/rerun ish).

i was too big to get down on the flo, on the flo'.

>But it didn't really hit me until I could buy my own tapes.
>No big brother, no uncle, and mom's wasn't having it. Most
>of the time she was rocking Studio One in the car.

feel for you. i'd have been in the same boat. if it wasn't for my uncle i'd have never heard some of the really obscure early hip hop. kurtis blow would make to the radio every now and then, but it wasn't until about 82 or 83 when power 99 came on the scene in philly, when you could really hear any hip hop on the radio. and then when lady b came out... it was on then. ninjas planned they weekend around Street Beat. (*start your tapes*).

>
>But I got big enough to mow lawns, and before you know
>it....

:-). old man rant. whassup w/ kids nowadays. be all kindsa overgrown lawns, unshoveled snow and what not. that paid for my first three boxes (an ill advised red 8 track purchase, and then two cassette players, which were the medium of choice on school bus trips and during layup lines on the bball team)

>
>But the truth of the matter, I was just into rap music and
>breakdancing, not hip hop and b-boying. Even going back to
>NY
>those early 80 summers I still had no idea what the rest of
>the hip hop was all about.


>It was only after meeting cats, reading up, studying the
>music,
>listening to breaks that I began to understand what the
>whole
>thing was about.

true indeed.

You get a whole diff perspective when you
>see
>how folks make the music, see how it gets promoted, and see
>what people say they like and what they really like.

word. going to college broadened my horizons considerably in that aspect. they were completely opened, though, when i was doing music reviews for ysb, and would get all kinds music shipped to me, and i saw what got played and what didn't.
>
>Q. How come they weren't playing instruments like everyone
>else?
>A. They couldn't afford instruments and training, but they
>could still make music.

yep. plus, this was an extension of disco. and parties. they took the turntables to new places because they wanted the party experience to be more and more fresh. and the intense competition led to innovation. (oh shit, free market hip hop). oh, y'all dj talks? we got a hype man? oh, y'all got chants, call and response? we gon harmonize. we got routines. and eventually, we got rhymes/emcees.
>
>Compared to other black music, hip hop had a whole set of
>new
>rules and new ideas.
>
>You ain't got no drums? Holla at this Billy Squire.
>Can't sing but you got something you wanna say? get a mic.


this gloria gaynor record is trash, except for 4 beats in the middle before the happy strings and shit come in? get two copies and run that back and forth.
>
>But cats nowadays, they don't appreciate the very essence
>of the what made it different and special in the 1st place.

they really need boot camp for this. and we definitely have to have an HHAT entrance test for folks that want to write about it.


>They make it seem like basic bare bones hip hop is just a
>dumb
>idea and is keeping people back.

for real.
>
>mayn I dunno,
>k. orr

peace & blessings,

x.

"I'm on the Zoloft to keep from killing y'all." - Iron Mike