Hip-Hop Hits the Floor

Since the early recordings by the Sugarhill Gang in the late 70's, Rap music skirted the edges of the Dance music community. Seminal early Rap masters such as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Kurtis Blow, and Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force were all popular in clubs as well as with Rap audiences. As Rap helped build the Hip-Hop community in the early 80's, the popularity of Rap with Dance audiences faded somewhat. A new group of Hip-Hop performers and producers, well-versed in breakbeat, sampling technology and the use of synthesized beats, emerged in the late 80's to popularity in clubs and in the Hip-Hop community. A new diversity emerged as well including key female artists, white rappers, and cross-cultural influences originating out of Jamaica.

As Hip-Hop developed, weaving samples from previous R&B recordings became commonplace. Possibly the most frequently sampled artist was, and remains, James Brown, the acclaimed Godfather of Soul. Two of the top DJ/MC teams, Eric B. and Rakim and Rob Base and D.J. E-Z Rock, frequently used James Brown samples in their work. As the rhyming MC along with D.J. Eric B., Rakim is recognized as one of the most skillful wordsmiths of all time in Hip-Hop. Rakim's line 'Pump up the volume' is the core sample of the groundbreaking Pump Up the Volume single by M.A.R.R.S. The remix duo Coldcut turned Eric B. and Rakim's Paid In Full into a monster Dance hit in 1988. Rob Base and D.J. E-Z Rock used a now familiar wordless sample of James Brown as a centerpiece for It Takes Two, an anthemic Hip-Hop smash in the summer of 1988. Their rocking style with Rob Base's straightforward no-nonsense raps created great excitement in the clubs.

1988 also marked the emergence of some of the first key female rappers. Salt n Pepa first scored a club hit with Push It in 1987, but it was 1988s Shake Your Thang that lifted the trio into the Dance chart top 10. The music of Salt n Pepa would continue to develop and they would become one of the most successful and enduring of Hip-Hop acts in the 90's. Another trio, J.J. Fad, came out of the L.A. Hip-Hop scene in 1988 and scored a major club hit with Supersonic combining slick electronic beats and bright, entertaining rapping. Supersonic was one of the first successful production efforts by Dr. Dre.

One group proved that white men could be adept at Rap as well. The Beastie Boys might be the most direct connection between Punk and Hip-Hop. Their first album Licensed To Ill is unremittingly loud and noisy but still managed a minor club hit in the single of Paul Revere and It's the New Style. Their sound would quickly evolve into an artistically complex pastiche of samples, Rock and R&B on the next album Paul's Boutique in 1989 that would include the top 20 Dance hit Hey Ladies.

Kurtis Mantronik brought his Jamaican background, steeped in the tradition of Dub, to impact upon his Hip-Hop work. Forming the group Mantronix, he broke into the Dance charts with Who Is It in 1987 and then rode even higher in the charts with 1988's Simple Simon (You Gotta Regard). In the early 90's he began to move further into House away from Hip-Hop but continued to be an influential producer and artist in the Dance music community.

In the late 1980's Hip-Hop made a strong return to prominence in the clubs and has remained as a significant force ever since. The artists and producers that could be counted under the Hip-Hop umbrella were wide-ranging and diverse from the Punk/Rock intensity of the Beastie Boys to the smooth rhymes of Eric B. and Rakim. Rap vocal styles and the sound of Hip-Hop fully joined the melting pot of Dance music as it moved forward into the 90's.