Rap & Bullshit: conventional rap history narratives that are a load of bollox (part 2)

"Run-DMCs Sucker MC's made a whole generation of rappers irrelevant overnight!"


More oft-repeated poppycock. Firstly, rap had already splintered into a handful of sub-genres which existed symbiotically by 1983. Secondly, rather than making a whole generation of rappers irrelevant, Sucker MC's actually provoked the Furious Five and the Coldcrush Brothers into recording their best studio songs as groups: Step Off and Fresh, Fly, Wild, And Bold. Thirdly, old school guys like Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee, and Spoonie Gee all had some of their biggest hits post-Sucker MC's: Step Off, Beat Street Breakdown, I Feel For You, How Ya Like Me Now, Wild Wild West, and The Godfather. Fourthly, this narrative conveniently discounts Whodini's place in the evolution of recorded rap.

This ain't to say that Sucker MC's wasn't a game changing record, but its impact has been exaggerated by generic music critics who like to glibly explain the pre-golden era of 80's rap with tidy generational shifts and grand Slay Thy Father gestures. Anyone caught propagating that horseshit should be forced to spend their afterlife reviewing Rev Run's appalling 2005 solo album Distortion for the rest of eternity. Raise Hell on that notion, suckers.