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by
9 October, 2013@9:11 am
24 comments



This is an experiment, not that we’ll do anything with the data, we’re just curious. Tell us your personal introduction to hip-hop story. I’ll tell you mine.


I pretty much was aware of hip-hop in the 80′s as a 12 year old, but the first song that really resonated with me was Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing”, followed by “Funky Cold Medina”. I bought the album, but thought it sucked, so I tossed it. After school I would hang at my friend’s house, who would always turn on Yo!, and I saw the video for Special Ed’s “Think About It”. This was probably the coolest thing I had seen at the time, from Ed’s rhymes-within-rhymes, to him piloting a damn hovercraft through the park. After buying Youngest In Charge on tape, and listening to dubs of Public Enemy It Takes A Nation Of Millions album, my love for hip-hop took on a life of it’s own. And the rest is history…..


24 Responses to "Tell Us How You Got Into Hip-Hop."
  • Dnpmonk25 says:

    For me it was a Fat Boys record my brothers friend had. After hearing that I was hooked on break beats and scratching and the Fresh art Rhyming. Next of course was the VHS rentals of Crush Groove which was then followed by Breaking. I remember rapping Paul Revere on the walk home with my friends in 3rd grade competing with each other on who knew the most of the verses. Public Enemy was my first dose of how powerful Hip Hop can be as a voice. Like many I was into the G-Funk era which then was followed by the WU!! If you knew me in 92 I was already rocking my first WU Tee in HS with many jealous faces looking on! I would say that my discovery of Lyricist Lounge 1 and Sound Bombing 1 & 2 have paved the way for my love for the underground and the love of the MC.

  • the man the myth says:

    My story is so similar to Dayz that it is scary. My babysitter in Indianapolis Jermaine(had the jerry curl rocking), had a collection of records from the Rappin Duke to Whoodini, Roxanne Shante, UTFO. I heard the Rappin Duke and loved it, then friends and the real roxanne and was totally in love with the music. I moved to LA in 88, and living in south central was a rough transition, but I was one of the first people to visit the good life cafe. That was probably the best experience in hip hop I have ever had. Seeing probably the greatest MC’s I have ever witnessed doing this art, Aceyalone, Micah 9, Ganjah K, Chillin Villain Empire with beats out the ass. Rappers that were actually freestyling and displaying styles that were so far advanced that we still don’t see that often today. Seeing Fat Joe getting boo’ed off the stage,hahaha. So many good memories there, brothers coming together and putting that gang nonsense behind them as soon as they stepped in the door was a beautiful thing.
    My experiences throughout my 36 years have shaped my whole life, and are the main reason that I have a kind of hip hop purist approach to all of this stuff today, and why I seem like a grumpy old man when I comment on some of this stuff called “hip hop”.

  • Cam says:

    Fat Boys’ Crushin’ – The title track was my anthem as a fat kid who loved rap as much as he loved cake.

  • Matt L says:

    I was a 7-year-old white kid in northern Minnesota, and I heard “Parents Just Don’t Understand” on the radio while in the car. I loved it, and all my siblings/cousins loved it and played it in the summer at our annual family get-together lake vacation. That got me on hip-hop, and then “Mama Said Knock You Out” got me hooked. I would watch MTV all day waiting for the video. Between LL’s opening line, his hood up and the mic in the center of the ring, I was all-in. Then I heard “O.P.P.” and eventually “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang” and I started working backward on Public Enemy, N.W.A., Run-DMC, etc. in conjunction with all the classics that came out from ’92-2000, and here I am, still reading this site daily.

  • Hodges says:

    My pops always had some Prince or 70′s Motown playing at home or in the car, so I was predisposed to soul and rhythmic music even before I knew what music was. But my big brother by 5 years and his friends developed a unique taste for New York Hip Hop, which definately wasn’t popular in Atlanta around the mid to late 80s. Atlanta didn’t grasp onto rap until a few local acts started popping up on th scene around the start of West Coast ascension around 90. Around about 87 at age 6, I would listen to the dub tapes he made front the longest running Hip Hop Show in Atlanta, Rhythm and Vibes on 88.5 Live from Georgia State. I was aware of LL, Kurtis Blow, Run, Beasties, and the Def Jam movement a bit earlier , but it didn’t move me. His tapes of BDP and the Juice Crew, EPMD, and Eric B and Ra just struck a chord with me and I was a fiend ever since. I would play the tapes more than he did. I know it was weird for a 10 year old to ask his 15 year old brother to ask our dad to get us Parental Advisory tapes because “we don’t listen to the cuss words, we just like the music!” I think it should be mandatory for each coast to do a huge posse record every fuckin year like “Self Destruction” and “Same Gang.” I’m about to fuckin cry I miss those days so much when everybody was unique, smart, and dope.

  • Comments (24)

    Dayz

    October 9th, 2013 at 9:39 am