DJ Sean P
Rock It… Don’t Stop It!
BBE Music

www.bbemusic.com
 

London-based, deep grooves DJ Sean P has compiled a series of early Hip Hop recordings from 1979 to 1983, an era sometimes labeled “The Old School.” Rock It, Don’t Stop It is a compilation of lesser known 12″ singles by MCs from Brooklyn to Boston, all operating in a time dominated by the smash success of “Rapper’s Delight” and Sugarhill Records at large.

Sean’s collection of recordings here are of Hip Hop in its infancy in the recording booth mind you, but not necessarily Hip Hop as a practiced form of musical expression. For true grass roots documents of Hip Hop practiced in an emerging embryonic state, check out Cold Crush Brothers vs. Fantastic Five or Kool Moe Dee vs. Busy Bee at Harlem World in 1981 for instance. It is the bootleg tapes of Hip Hop performances in the Bronx or Harlem that reveal there was a stark difference in energy and complexity between the live performances of Uptown’s pioneers and those who hit the recording booth in the early 1980s. As a result, “Sugarhill” era records are considered dubious achievements by some, as these recordings sacrificed the edge and vitality of Hip Hop performance for the profits from a one off novelty dance hit.

Enter Rock It, Don’t Stop It into that debate. Does this collection enrich our understanding of early forms of rap recordings by uncovering previously unknown artists and their dynamic efforts? The answer is, yes, but it won’t necessarily end the dispute. While many Bronx pioneers’ achievements may have been unrecognized by popular audiences during the early ’80s Sugarhill era, the Rock It, Don’t Stop It compilation reveals there are dozens of recorded efforts that attempted to both recapture the energy of those live performances, and in some cases, push recorded Hip Hop into a brave new future.

“Boom” by Hardkore for instance explores a disco dub abstraction not like anything of the era. Kevin Fleetwood and the Cadillacs of Sound’s “Sweat (The B Side)” is a noisy and exciting mix of new wave keyboards and disco party rhymes. “Oh Yeah” by the Jackson Two, a pair of female MCs represent well with a tight sing song delivery. Tracks such as “Golden Rule” and “MC Rock” have a surprising edge that differs from most Enjoy and Sugarhill Records. “The People’s Message, Take Two” by Terry Lewis and Wildflower may have a wide eyed naiveté lyrically but with its sung chorus, bridges and rhythmic variation it is as compelling as anything Kurtis Blow ever recorded. And when Martin Luther King’s “Street Sweeper” speech is overlaid the beat for the song’s last four minutes, a connection between the 1960s civil rights rhetoric and 1980s Hip Hop is made long before Public Enemy or KRS ONE were recording.

A handful of tracks do nothing to convince Old School purists that mass recordings of Hip Hop in the early 1980s moved the culture forward. The title track, “Rappin’ Partee Groove” or “At the Place to Be” don’t cover any ground not already claimed by Treacherous Three or Spoonie Gee on wax. Rickey G. & the Everloving Five’s “To the Max” is wholesale knock off of Fearless Four’s 1981 hit “Rockin’ It.” And it is for these reasons some believed the formulaic backing disco tracks and simplistic rhymes and cadence imprisoned the possibilities of recorded Hip Hop from 1979 to 1982. It wouldn’t be the first time the record industry opportunists cynically capitalized on an emerging musical form almost at the cost of its own vitality.

But in some ways, the banality of “Old School” recordings is what makes the production on Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock” or Melle Mel’s lyrics in “The Message” in 1982 a break out from that sonic penitentiary. These ensuing records that came after much of all that is found on Sean P’s compilation are a veritable line-in-the-sand that shaped not only Hip Hop records henceforth but pop music into the 21st century. What’s exciting about Rock It, Don’t Stop It are the moments when we hear artists, knowingly or not, chipping away at the walls of that prison.

— Andrew McIntosh