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