musicians who were down with rapp from the early days
SIRUS
2,554 Posts
were there any r&b/rock/etc artists who endorsed rap pre-rundmc? off the top of my head i can think of a few who disliked it, but can't think of any of the old guard who liked/understood it.
mtume thought it was musical necrophilia, george clinton said he didn't like it from the jump but thought it had a future as a genre, prince hated it; bassline or no baseline, etc.
who stood up for it?
mtume thought it was musical necrophilia, george clinton said he didn't like it from the jump but thought it had a future as a genre, prince hated it; bassline or no baseline, etc.
who stood up for it?
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And The Last Poets.
As far as rockers I never hear about it. Blondie?
And The Clash
herbie yeah, but did he ever dabble with rap again after rockit?
I definitely recall reading at least one interview with Lou Reed in the mid 80s where he spoke about how he was digging a lot of the electro-rap like Divine Sounds' "Do Or Die Bed Sty" and all that stuff. Obviously he changed his tune once sampling technology became advanced enough for rappers to actually jack his shit.
actually Trevor Horn does count
later on, ronnie jordan, etc..
btw- gil scott-heron was never a major proponent of hip-hop, or at least not in the way "music journalists" expected him to be. he derided the production as "tricknology" and even wrote an ominous song about what he percieved was wrong with the lyrical content called "message to the messengers". about 10-15 years before his death, every interview he did included a question about his status as the "godfather of hip-hop" to which he usually deflected with self-deprecating humour. if he was pressed he would name spearhead and common as acts he had respect for...
peace, stein. . .
wasn't the Sugar Hill house band made up of Stang acts?
Joe Bataan
Arthur Russel through his Sleeping Bag Records label
Cerrone
Plastic Bertrand
Captain Sensible
Ian Dury and the Blockheads
Not exactly rap, but New Order flew out to NY after listening to Planet Rock to try and hook up with its creators. Unfortunately they didn't believe Africa Bambaataa was actually a real person so they just met with Arthur Baker, the other name listed on the release. Kinda a shame really, as a New Order / Bambaataa collaboration would've been interesting.
Steppenwolf guested on a Furious Five remake of one of his songs (Magic Carpet Ride maybe?), but i think that was also later 80s after the RUNDMC/AEROSMITH thing.
and the soul/rap political thing with the same rapper
phil dabbled