11/11/2014
Real talk about what Hip-Hop actually is...
Excerpt from Interview by Nelson George interview with three of Hip-Hop's founding fathers Afrika Bambattaa, Grand Master Flash, and Kool Herc.
Nelson George: What do you think when people say that there's a certain style of music that's considered hip-hop, and a certain style that's not considered hip-hop? Claims some records are fake hip-hop records and some are real?
Bam: They're ignorant. They don't know the true forms of hip-hop, you gotta take hip-hop for what it is. You got hard beats, you got your gangsta rap, you got your electro-funk sound which came from the party rock sound, you got your Miami bass, you got the go-go from DC. We was playing go-go for years ago. If you really with Teddy Riley, he came to Bronx River parties and heard go-go music and just flipped it up and now you got new jack swing. All of this was part of hip-hop.
Flash: It's all about different tastes. It could be hard drums like a Billy Squire record. It could be the bass hitting and drums soft like "Seven Minutes of Funk." It could be have the hallway echo effect of "Apache".
Herc: We can't let the media define this for us. Someone says it's got hardcore beats and talkin' about bi***es sucking dick, that's hardcore. That same person say that Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince are soft, it's not hip-hop. It is hip-hop. It's just another form. TI's about experimenting and being open.
-"Hip-Hop's Founding Fathers Speak the Truth" The Source no, 50. November 1993
