Green Label has released its list of “10 Ways New York City Changed The Rap Game,” a piece that highlights ten of the top ways New York City effected and influenced Hip Hop music and culture.
Included in the list was The Notorious B.I.G. among others. “The late, great Notorious B.I.G. had an unprecedented affect on the New York rap scene,” explains the piece. “He is omnipresent and will always be remembered as one of the finest emcees, not just from New York, but across the sphere to touch the mic. Golden Era romanticists will be familiar with the reign of the West Coast during the lucrative Death Row years, but it was the efforts of Christopher Wallace that balanced out the spectrum and brought New York back into the frame.”
The 1981 battle between Kool Moe Dee and Busy Bee Starski also featured on Green Label’s list.
“In 1981, at the industry-famous Harlem World, 129 Lennox Ave. in Manhattan, Kool Moe Dee and Busy Bee Starski created one of the first emcee battles that set the cornerstone for rivalry and the competitive sport we’ve come to love over the decades.” The piece continues: “Busy Bee was the emcee who could rock the party, hype a crowd and was an artist with entertainment at the heart of his manifesto. Kool Moe Dee on the other hand was the emcee infatuated with rhyming and the more likely to prevail on wax. Kool Moe Dee won that battle and subsequently a new sub-genre of Hip Hop emerged. In the words of the great KRS-One, ‘If Kool Moe Dee had have lost that battle, nothing we’re saying today would be said… It would not exist.’”
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The piece also outlined several other factors that contributed to New York’s gargantuan influence on the Rap arena. Of course, Def Jam was included, as the house that Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons built is one of Hip Hop’s cultural landmarks. Also included were New York radio stations Hot 97, 98.7, and Kiss FM, which kept the “urban” music pumping in through the wee-hours of the morning. “In the early ’80s, WBLS and Kiss FM were the go-to stations for your dose of Hip Hop music. WBLS introduced “Rap Attack,” hosted by Mr. Magic and Marley Marl, while Kiss FM added DJ Red Alert to their register,” the piece stated.
To view the piece in its entirety, please visit Green Label.
