dj zenn1000 Day Album Challenge (#6) Greatest Rap Hits Vol. 2 (1981) [06.01.24]
you know, I think I’ll tell you the story of my life…
Greatest Rap Hits Vol. 2 released on Sugar Hill Records in 1981 is certainly the first Hip Hop album I ever bought. at the time Rap/Hip Hop albums were few and far between. it was a singles culture. other than the first couple of LPs by Sugarhill Gang and Kurtis Blow I’m not sure there were any other full-length albums by individual artists or groups at the time. I could be wrong, but I’m not actually interested in doing the research to confirm that.
I’m not certain but I believe The Message by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, which came out in the summer of 1982, was the first rap single I bought. I was already aware of the music and culture. in 1979, Rapper’s Delight was the very first rap single released and the video for Blondie’s Rapture was part of MTV’s first 90 minute video rotation.
I probably bought this album around the same as I bought The Message. I would have been clued into by Robert Christgau ranking it #1 in the annual Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. Christgau’s monthly Consumer Guide and the Pazz & Jop Poll were sacred texts for me at the time.
I was rewarded with six excellent early Hip Hop tracks, two of which are absolute masterpieces. That’s The Joint by Funky Four + One is a touchstone rap for old school Hip Hop. anyone familiar with Shake Your Rump will recognize the snippet of a drum break and the shout of “it’s the joint” sampled by The Beastie Boys. the actual tune is built around a replayed hook from A Taste of Honey’s Rescue Me. (we were still several years removed from the actual sampling of other records. the first drum beat ever sampled was Funk Inc.’s Kool is Back by Trevor Horn for Yes’ Owner of a Lonely Heart (1983), but that is a story for another day.)
The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels Of Steel announces the creation of a new art form – turntablism. Grandmaster Flash created a brand new work of art using three turntables and a mixer with a crossfader (which he invented) to program, segue, and scratch ten records – Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust, Blondie’s Rapture, Incredible Bongo Band’s Apache, Chic’s Good Times, The Hellers’ Life Story, The Official Adventures of Flash Gordon, and the other four songs on this compilation (Spoonie Gee & The Sequence’s Monster Jam, Sugarhill Gang’s 8th Wonder, and Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s Freedom and Birthday Party.)
all these years later I still find it exhilarating. for me, this ranks right up there as one of the most important records of the 20th Century. without it, going forward the path of music history and development would have been fundamentally different.
#1000DayAlbumChallenge #GreatestRapHitsVolume2 #FunkyFourPlusOne #GrandmasterFlash&TheFuriousFive #HipHop #Rap #RobertChristgau #Pazz&Jop
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