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all the way through the split w/ GMF/Sugarhill, etc (and the collabs w/ duke bootee which was ahead of its time).
you one of a very very few who made me pick up a pen and want to write rhymes, because you were writing more than rhymes.
i've posted, on this site, about the impact that your music and words had on not only me, but my generation.
do you by chance remember the compilation album where you were freestyling w/ sha rock over flash cutting up 'the breaks'? it had a silver cover, and i think it said Rap Convention (circa '80 or '81). i remember you said
"and before i go, hah, before i quit/ you gonna know i don't talk no sugarhill shit/ i'm melle mel, you know i rock well/ from the top of the world to the depths of hell/ rockin the best with the most finesse/ takin the top and leavin what's left/ a face of gold, a heart of stone/ i need my crew but i'm stone to the bone/ cuz i, play the game just to pay the price/ to be cool as ice, like paradise..."
i been searching for years for that. i bet my uncle still got it somewhere in his crib.
btw, i wrote an essay on the history of hip hop music for a book entitled the hip hop tree, which i posted here.
i actually 'wrote' the piece on here, using the boards as my word processor, more or less, and react/responding to questions that cats had as i posted the bits of it along the way.
here's a tracklisting of old school joints where i had realized that you took part of your verse off of superrappin and made that the crescendo to 'The Message'. incredible, yo.
http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=18&topic_id=22507&mesg_id=22507&listing_type=search#22623
my entire, finished article, as published, is here:
http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=18&topic_id=22507&mesg_id=22507&listing_type=search#22615
anyway. thanks, again, for your incredible contributions to this culture.
peace & blessings,
x.
sigless for the summer, y'all.
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