When Hip-Hop was Rap

October 3, 2008

Growing up in rural farmland New Jersey, an hour from both New York City and Philadelphia, you wouldn’t imagine that my youth was punctuated with rap music. It was.

And now, thanks to the wonder of the internets, I can share the songs that blasted from my Sears boombox.

My weapon of choice was the Sears LXI boombox. Detachable speakers, 5 band equalizer, line in, mic in. (note, that’s not me in the video, but it’s the box I had!)

My fascination with rap started with Run-DMC’s, “You talk too much”.

Then onto Run-DMC’s “You Be Illin”

Synthesizer magic with Whistle’s “Buggin”

Human Beatbox Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick, kick it live with “La Di Da Di”

And who can forget UTFO’s “Roxanne Roxanne”? Yea, neither can I!

And the pinnacle of synthesizer rap, “Jam On It” by Newcleus.

Of course there were many more songs, but these are a few that I would blast from my front porch, busting mad lyrics and beat boxing. This was the innocent days of rap, whose mild mannered lyrics put some rhythm in a middle-class Caucasian via power 99FM. I can’t thank them enough.

And I’ll end with some Fat Boys.