So, my favourite Rap 12" of all time celebrates its 40th birthday at some point during this year. A truly great record which stands as thee best example of early Rap on wax, it's also a hugely important record since echoes and ricochets of both songs can be heard in everything from T La Rock to Too $hort. Me, I wanna read an oral history of the 12" from everyone involved still alive (R.I.P Pumpkin and Bobby Robinson) and some of the A-list Rap personalities who bear the traces of its influence like LL Cool J, Slick Rick, Pos & Dove from De La, Kid Capri, and Will Smith & DJ Jazzy Jeff. One caveat, though: the article must NOT be written by that insufferable narcissist Questlove.
A cursory Google search tells me two things with regards to narrowing the exact release date:
ReplyDeleteFirst mention of "The New Rap Language" in print that I can find is from the July 5th, 1980 edition of Billboard, via an Enjoy ad, near the bottom left corner of this page:
https://books.google.com/books?id=9iQEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PT7&dq=&pg=PT7#v=onepage&q&f=false
Though it's obviously a promo tool, there they are already calling it a hit. The catalogue number for the 12" is ER-6002. 6000 is Rappin' & Rocking the House and 6001 is Superrappin', both from '79, so you'd think the next one would be earlier than July of the next year.
Now the second thing I found was this Village Voice article, dictated by Kool Moe Dee:
https://www.villagevoice.com/2020/02/07/1980-1989-the-awakening-of-kool-moe-dee/
It's from January 2nd of 1990 and in the intro says almost as a casual reason for the article that: "[i]]t’s been 10 years since the release of 'The New Rap Language,' his recording debut on the B-side of Spoonie Gee’s 'Love Rap.'" Though since it's from the top of the year and from the way it's written, it appears the author, Harry Allen, is speaking in more general terms, rather than as some set date of the exact anniversary.
Petition for Big Sleep to do the article!
ReplyDeleteLIKE SPOONIE GEE I'M THE METROPOLITAN
ReplyDeleteThat Will Smith/Jazzy Jeff vid is great.
ReplyDeleteNice finds from Big Sleep. That Moe Dee article is borderline unreadable lol.
ReplyDelete