Rockers making room for rappers in Hall of Fame

[Brian Damage]

NEW YORK - Ask Grandmaster Flash about hip-hop stars deserving of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and he’s quick with a list of rap icons.

“Afrika Bambaataa. Run-DMC. KRS-One,” he says, barely pausing for a breath. “Big Daddy Kane. LL Cool J. Eric B and Rakim. Tribe Called Quest. The list goes on and on.”

Flash left himself out, with good reason: The DJ and partners the Furious Five enter the Hall on March 12 as its initial rap inductees. The Bronx hip-hop pioneers are part of an otherwise traditional class: R.E.M., Van Halen and a pair of fellow New York City performers, Patti Smith and the Ronettes.

As the first citizens of hip-hop nation in the Rock Hall, the arrival of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five signals a new age at the Cleveland attraction: Smith likely marks the end of the ’70s punk inductees, and the time of hip-hop is upon us.

“This announces the beginning of the rap era for the Hall,” said Bill Adler, a hip-hop historian — currently editing the “Eyejammie Encyclopedia of Hip-Hop” — and member of the Hall’s nominating committee. “Flash and the Furious Five are going to open the floodgates.”

Adler, a publicist for the hugely influential Def Jam Records in the mid-1980s, offered his own list of rappers destined for induction: “The Beastie Boys, very quickly. Run-DMC and LL Cool J will get in pretty quickly. Slick Rick.”

‘The Message’ was heard
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five enter 25 years after their groundbreaking single, “The Message,” about hard times in their native borough during the Reagan Administration. It was the first popular rap song with a social theme — “It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under,” went the hypnotic chorus.

“One of the pivotal points in hip-hop history,” said Furious Five rapper Melle Mel, who acknowledged his group initially wanted to pass on the song.

The group, which also featured Kid Creole, Cowboy, Mr. Ness and Raheim before an acrimonious 1983 split between Flash and Mel, had missed induction on two previous occasions. So when word arrived of the honor this year, Flash said he was initially skeptical.

“When it sank in that we were in, it was a good feeling for hip-hop,” Flash said. “I think it’s bigger than Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. To get that kind of respect is good for hip-hop.”

[catlover79]

Why can't they just make a Rap Hall of Fame?? Rap is not rock, IMHO.

[The Flying Dutchmans]

I agree with Catlover, Rap Is not rock thank god, and they need to start their own hall of fame.

[ABlairican Pie]

I'm not so big on the idea of a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at all. Rock and roll should be about something living and changing people, not some relic to gather dust and people get all nostalgic over.

Having said that, there is a big world of difference between rock and rap, Anthrax and Public Enemy collaborations notwithstanding. People of color invented rock and roll, with a definite beat and rhythm, which has changed and expanded over the decades, while rap has been stuck in that mechanical processed beat sample for the past twenty years. Chunka-chunka chunka-chunka. The lyrics are, uhh, "interesting", but the whole thing is not melodic.
If I recited a Betty Crocker cookbook over a sythesized "drum" beat and recorded it, would that be rap, and could I make a million bucks from it? After all, Betty Crocker has been selling for nearly a century.

[platinumblondelife]

good

[Ireneparalegal]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Why can't they just make a Rap Hall of Fame?? Rap is not rock, IMHO.

Yep, so true.