Jan 20, 2008

When the shit goes down...

...you'd better be ready.

It occurred to me the other day that there was a time when I wasn't aware of the existence of hip hop. I listened to music while being oblivious to any distinction between genres. I even have a distinct memory of listening to and singing along to Cypress Hill's classic When the shit goes down (I think I sang 'ship' instead of 'shit' for some reason though), but not understanding that it was rap music.


I'd like to know when you guys first became 'aware' of hip hop, and if you can be specific, what song did it for you.

3 comments:

king tim said...

man, i remember us doing that!
was that like '94 or something?
and i thought it was ship too

i also remember that scratch break that goes through de la soul's 'a roller skating jam named "saturdays"' (de la soul is dead, 1991) from before i knew about hip hop
it just somehow stuck in my head and it was years till i really was aware of the song

the first hip hop song i really got into was 'set your mind at ease' by grits off a sampler somewhere in the mid '90s

thanks for taking me back, man

Nick said...

It was a radio edit which had 'ship' I think.

Angus said...

I remember I used to rap along with poppier rappers like Will Smith, Coolio and even Puffy and Ma$e, before I realised what it was. And I remember listening to 'Killing Me Softly' on the radio in America in 1996 and singing along.

I think it was playing computer games at Nick's house listening to rap, and doing school magazine listening to Tim's Grits and Sup the Chemist cds.