(The Golden Age, 1981-1991)
1980 • January 25--Black Entertainment Television, founded and owned by Robert L.
Johnson premieres.
• May--Kurtis Blow’s The Breaks is released and becomes the first Rap 12-inch single
to be certified gold and only the second 12-in single ever to do so. His Christmas
Rappin, released in late ’79, becomes the third 12-inch to be certified gold. Later this
year, Blow releases the first Rap album on a major label. (Mercury Records).
• September--Kurtis Blow plays Madison Square Garden on a bill featuring Bob Marley
and the Commodores.
• How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise• (Clappers) by Brother D with
Collective Effort - the first Hiphop recording to openly question the status of Black
people, preceding Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s The Message by two years
- dated on its sleeve as being released this year. According to Brother D himself, it
was actually released in 1981.
• The Funky Four + 1More perform at the Mudd Club. Though not widely noted or
remembered, this and other shows expose much of New York’s hip, White, downtown
audience to Hiphop, accelerating the co-opting of the form by the mainstream.
1981 • February--The Funky Four +1More are the first Hiphop musical guests on Saturday
Night Live.
• April--The first major news article on B-Boyin (a.k.a. Break Dancing), To the Beat
Y’all: Breaking is Hard to Do by Sally Banes, is published in the Village Voice.
• July--ABC’s 20/20 airs Rappin’ to the Beat, television’s first national news story on
Hiphop.
• December--New York City mayor Ed Koch escalates his war on graffiti by allocating
$22.4 million to build double fences with razor-edged metal coils around 18 subway
yards, in addition to the dogs that were already patrolling. These new efforts do not
stop graffiti writers.
• Tom Silverman founds Tommy Boy Records in New York City. It becomes one of
Hiphop’s most influential labels featuring Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force,
De La Soul, Queen Latifah and others.
1982 • April--Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force (Tommy Boy) is
released; it is certified gold four months later. Advanced for its time, it also deeply
influences what will later become the bass music style of Rap from the Southeast.
• July--Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message” (Sugar Hill) explodes.
It’s widely hailed by many for demonstrating that Hiphop music can provide insightful
social commentary.
• October--Wild Style, directed by Charlie Ahearn, premieres. The first feature film
about Hiphop Kulture and its elements. Officially opens in 1983.
• December--The New York City Rap tour-featuring Emcees, DeeJays, Breakers,
Poppers, Lockers, and Graffiti Artists-travels to London and Paris. This is the first
international tour to feature all of Hiphop’s elements.
• Kool Moe Dee battles Busy Bee.
1983 • Michael Jackson releases Thriller.
• September 15th--Michael Stewart, 25, is arrested for writing graffiti on a New York
subway wall. Thirteen days later, he dies in the hospital; the New York Times reports,
“An autopsy found that Stewart’s fatal coma was caused by a spinal injury inflicted
while he was being subdued.” Stewart’s controversial death precedes a host of police
brutality cases that will mar the coming decade.
• October--Kool DJ Red Alert’s show debuts on WRKS New York 98.7 FM, creating a
prime-time, commercial radio showcase for new and established Rap music artists. In
’88, influenced by Boogie Down Productions, Red Alert begins playing dance hall
music as well.
• Run DMC releases the 12 inch single It’s like that (A side) and Sucker M.C.s (B side)
and takes Hiphop fashion, language, political views and music into the American
mainstream.
• The Fearless Four, after releasing several well-received singles on the Harlem-based
Enjoy label, becomes the first Emcee crew (Rap group) to sign with a major label,
Elektra Records.
• Grandmaster Flash, a.k.a. Joseph Saddler, leaves the group Grandmaster Flash & the
Furious Five and begins a lengthy $5 million lawsuit against Sugar Hill Records to
regain control of the group’s full name. The group reunites in the late ‘80s.
• Technics introduces the SL-1200MKII turntable, which will become a DeeJay
standard.
• Crazy Leggs of the Rock Steady Crew’s brief but powerful appearance in Flashdance
catalyzes a worldwide break-dancing craze, though there is no Rap music on the
movie’s million selling soundtrack.
1984 • Rapper Sweet Tee releases One for the Treble (Tuff City) with Davey DMX.
• RUN DMC release their debut album RUN DMC (Profile).
• January 18--Henry Chalfant and Tony Silver’s Style Wars, the first documentary about
Hiphop Kulture with a focus upon Graffiti Art subculture, is broadcast on PBS.
• April--Video Music Box, the first music video TV show devoted to Hiphop, is
founded by Ralph McDaniels and Lionel Vid Kid Martin, on WNYC New York.
• Before becoming Public Enemy, Chuck D and others released a song this year entitled
Lies under the name of Spectrum City.
• June 29--The short-lived program Graffiti Rock premieres on WPIX-TV New York.
It features performances by popular Rap groups like Run DMC and the Treacherous
Three.
• September--The 1984 Swatch Watch New York City Fresh Fest, Hiphop’s first
national tour, debuts Labor Day weekend in Greensboro, NC. Including 27 dates
through Christmas, the tour featuring Run D.M.C., Kurtis Blow, Whodini, the Fat
Boys, Newcleus, and New York’s Dynamic Breakers grosses $3.5 million. Later, the
Fat Boys sign an endorsement deal with Swatch.
• November--Def Jam Recordings, an independent Hiphop label in New York City co-
owned by manager/promoter Russell Simmons and producer Rick Rubin, is founded in
Rubin’s New York University dorm room with an initial investment of $8,000. The
12-inch single “I Need a Beat” by 16-year-old L.L. Cool J is the first record for both
the artist and the label. Recorded for just $700, it sells more than 100,000 copies.
• The Five Percenters celebrate their 20th anniversary. The tenets of this Islamic
organization are associated with many prominent artists including Rakim Allah, King
Sun, Poor Righteous Teachers and others.
1985 • LL Cool J releases his debut album Radio (Def Jam).
• Before becoming Boogie Down Productions, Scott LaRock and the Celebrity Three
(KRS-ONE, MC Quality, Levi 167) release a song entitled Advance (Zakia)
• Michael Schultz’s Krush Groove, featuring performances by Run D.M.C., the Fat
Boys, L.L. Cool J, Kurtis Blow, and the Beastie Boys made on a $3 million budget,
opens in 515 theaters nationwide and is cited as the No. 1 movie in America by
Variety the following week. When a 17-year-old is thrown through a window after one
New York screening, Krush Groove becomes the first to fall victim to the rap-movies-
cause-violence paranoia that will grip the genre for the next decade.
• Run DMC, Kurtis Blow, The Fat Boys, Melle Mel and Whodini appear on the song
King Holiday to promote a national observance for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s
birthday (Polygram).
• Roxanne Shante battles U.T. F.O.
• Def Jam Recordings’ co-owners, Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin, sign a distribution
agreement for $600,000 with Columbia Records, the largest major label deal for a
Hiphop record company at the time. The first release under the agreement is the album
Radio by L.L. Cool J.
• King of Rock by Run D.M.C. (Profile) becomes the first Rap album available on CD.
• Run DMC, Melle Mel, Scorpio, Duke Bootee, The Fat Boys and Afrika Bambaataa
appear on the song Sun City to rap against Apartheid in South Africa.
• Scott Sterling (Scott LaRock) and Krist Parker (KRS-ONE) form Boogie Down
Productions, with the intention of making intelligence and knowledge a new trend in
Hiphop. KRSONE is an acronym for Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly
Everyone.
• The Show b/w La-Di-Da-Di by Doug E. Fresh and MC Ricky D. (a.k.a. Slick Rick)
hits. Soon after, the two break up and pursue solo careers.
• Grandmaster Flash signs a solo contract with Elektra, followed by Grandmaster Melle
Mel and other group members. After their lack of success, the group reunites in 1987
as Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel & the Furious five for a charity concert at Madison
Square Garden, hosted by Paul Simon.
• Supernature (Salt n’ Pepa) battles Doug E Fresh with their debut 12 inch single The
Showstopper (Reality).
1986 • January--Kurtis Blow appears on the cover of England’s Blues & Soul magazine,
demonstrating the international appeal of Hiphop’s first major Rap star.
• June--Run D.M.C., performing on the Raising Hell tour at the Spectrum in
Philadelphia, exhort fans to hold up their Adidas. Five thousand pairs of Adidas
immediately go up in the air, as the crowd of 20,000 watches the trio rip into their hit
single, “My Adidas.” Their manager video tapes the moment and sends a copy to the
company. The gesture earns the crew an endorsement deal with the German footwear
manufacturer. The company manufactures four Run D.M.C. styles: The Eldorado, the
Brougham, and the Fleetwood (named after the group’s three favorite Cadillac
models), and the Ultra Star.
• Beastie Boys release their debut album Licensed to Ill (Def Jam).
• Boogie Down Productions release South Bronx, a song that was to start an Emcee
battle between Boogie Down Productions (B.D.P.) and the Juice Crew (M.C. Shan,
Mr. Magic Marley Marl and others). It was called, “The Bridge Wars.”
• August 17--Fighting breaks out between gang members attending the Long Beach
Arena date of Run D.M.C.’s Raising Hell tour. Police, summoned by promoters when
the melee erupts at 7:35 P.M., don’t arrive until 11. Forty-two people are injured in
what is, up to that time, Hiphop’s most notoriously violent event. The California arena
had already established a 16-year history of violence at concerts. Some of the previous
incidents: In 1970, 46 were arrested at a Jethro Tull show, in 1971, 21 were arrested
after battling with police at a Ten Year’s After Show; in 1972, 31 were arrested on
drug charges at a Led Zeppelin performance; in 1985, a young concert goer was
injured when he fell from a balcony onto his head at a Deep Purple show.
• December 4--Run D.M.C. are the first Rap group to appear on the cover of Rolling
Stone, an honor they earn as a result of "Raising Hell" (Profile) becoming Hiphop’s
first multiplatinum Rap album.
1987 • The Juice Crew release Evolution, which featured Debbie D, Kool G Rap, Glamorous,
MC Shan and TJ Swan for Black History Month.
• Boogie Down Productions release its debut album Criminal Minded (B Boy).
• Eric B & Rakim release their debut album Paid in Full (Broadway/Island).
• KRS-ONE battles Melle Mel live at the Latin-Quarter Night Club.
• February 24--At the 29th Grammy ceremony a trio of young, White New York
Rappers called the Beastie Boys present the Best Male Rock Vocalist award to Robert
Palmer for Addicted to Love. But before announcing the winner, they interrupt the
proceedings to play a taped portion of Public Enemy’s unreleased Timebomb.
• March 7--Licensed to Ill by the Beastie Boys (Def Jam) becomes the first Rap album
to hit No. 1 on the pop album chart, after first charting in November 1986.
• August 27th--, Twenty-five-year old Scott Monroe Sterling, a.k.a. D.J. Scott LaRock
of Boogie Down Productions, dies at 1:25 A.M. from gunshot wounds to the head.
Along with Blastmaster KRS-ONE and Ced G of Ultramagnetic MC’s, LaRock had
just produced Criminal Minded (B-Boy), now considered one of the landmarks in
recorded Rap music. LaRock is later memorialized at Madison Square Garden by
KRS-ONE in a show that also features Public Enemy.
• New Music Seminar holds it's first event.
• Eric B. and Rakim Releases Paid in Full (4th and Broadway).
• Street Frogs, the first Rap-music oriented Saturday morning cartoon, makes its T.V.
debut. It is cancelled, only to be followed by the Kid ‘n Play cartoon (1990), and then
Hammerman (1991).
• Just Ice, who once appeared on America’s Most Wanted, dubs himself the original
Hiphop gangsta on his album Back to the Old School (Sleeping Bag/Fresh). KRS-
ONE would produce Just Ice’s next two albums Kool and Deadly (1987) and the
Desolate One (1988).
• Afrika Bambaataa holds a cipher discussion on the need for a Hiphop Union. This
meeting took place at the Latin Quarters nightclub in Manhattan, New York. It was
attended by Stetsasonic, Heavy D, the Audio Two, KRS-ONE, MC Lyte and others.
1988 • Public Enemy release It takes a nation of millions to hold us back (Def Jam).
• EPMD releases their debut album Strictly Business (Priority).
• Big Daddy Kane releases his debut album Long live the Kane (Cold Chillin).
• Slick Rick releases his debut album The Great Adventures of Slick Rick (Def Jam).
• NWA (Niggas With Attitude) releases Straight Outta Compton (Ruthless/Priority).
• Latin Quarter nightclub on 48th Street and Broadway in New York’s Times Square
closes down.
• January--Boogie Down Productions release By All Means Necessary (Jive) which
features the single Stop The Violence.
• September--A fan is stabbed to death at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y.
during a date on the Dope Jam tour, after a patron brings a knife into the arena. Jive
Records’ A&R Executive Ann Carli would eventually talk to KRS-ONE and Nelson
George about the formation of the Stop the Violence Movement.
• The single Self Destruction, by the all star Rap group The Stop the Violence
Movement (Jive), is released to counter the rising tide of violence associated with Rap
music. It features KRS-ONE, Stetsasonic, Kool Moe Dee, MC Lyte, D Nice, Ms.
Melodie, Doug E Fresh, Just-Ice, Heavy D, Public Enemy, and others.
• February--The first Grammy is awarded in the Best Rap Performance category to D.J.
Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince for Parents Just Don’t Understand. This year they
release He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper (Jive), their second album and one of Rap music’s
first double albums, which becomes certified double platinum. However, they do not
show because the presentation of their award will not be aired.
• July--Heavyweight champ Mike Tyson, fractures his right hand in a street fight with
boxer Mitch Blood Green in front of Hiphop clothier Dapper Dan’s Boutique in
Harlem.
• Dana Owens, a.k.a. Queen Latifah, debuts with the single Wrath of My Madness
(Tommy Boy).
• August--Co-founded by Harvard students, David Mays and Jon Schecter as a
newsletter for the Street Beat radio program, the Source magazine publishes its first
issue. Slick Rick and KRS-ONE would be among their first cover stories.
• September--YO! MTV Raps (created by Ted Demme) premieres on MTV, with
former Graffiti Artist and occasional Emcee Fab 5 Freddy as host.
• November--Tone-Loc’s Wild Thing video debuts on MTV, and the record soon sells
more than 2.5 million copies. Wild Thing is later blamed in some circles for inspiring
the vaguely defined phenomenon known as wilding and for inciting the rape of a
jogger in New York’s Central Park in April 1989.
1989 • January 3--The Arsenio Hall Show airs its first episode. The program becomes the
only late night talk show to regularly feature Rap artists as musical guests until its
cancellation in 1994, which ended with an all-star freestyle rap session featuring Yo-
Yo, Wu Tang Clan, MC Lyte, Das Efx, KRS-ONE, Mad Lion, CL Smooth, Pete Rock
and others.
• Wreckx-n-Effect battles Stetsasonic.
• X Clan battles 3rd Bass.
• Inspired by DJ Brucie B of the legendary Roof Top Roller Rink/club, DJ Kid Capri
releases a landmark mix tape entitled 10/9/89 which changes Rap music marketing
forever.
• May 22--In an interview in the Washington Times, Professor Griff of Public Enemy is
quoted as saying that Jews are responsible for the majority of wickedness that goes on
across the globe. The comment goes largely unnoticed until the story hits the Village
Voice fours weeks later, when the incident promptly goes nuclear. Griff later leaves
the group due to the fallout from the controversy, and his own group, the Last Asiatic
Disciples, is signed to Luke Records.
• August--An FBI representative sends a letter to Priority Records, regarding N.W.A.’s
song **** tha Police on the platinum selling Straight Outta Compton. The letter
suggests that the group is inciting violence against and disrespect for the law
enforcement officer.
• After not performing **** tha Police throughout their first national tour, N.W.A. are
chased from the stage by police as they start the song during the tour’s final date at
Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena.
• September 8--Twenty-eight-year-old Keith Wiggins, a.k.a. Cowboy of Grandmaster
Flash & the Furious Five, dies in Queens after waking up two days earlier paralyzed
from the waist down. He was perhaps one of the most distinctive vocalists and
innovative stylists in early recorded and pre-recorded Rap music.
• October 13—Rap group Salt-N-Pepa sell one million records for Rap label Next
Plateau as Push It becomes certified platinum.
• The cable channel Video Jukebox Network (the Box) starts airing nationally and will
succeed in breaking many artists after the decline of YO! MTV Raps’ video
dominance.
• Slick Rick releases his first solo album, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick (Def Jam).
• Kool Moe Dee battles L.L. Cool J.
(The Platinum Age, 1991-2001)
1990 • Influenced by the Stop the Violence Movement, West Coast entreprenuer Mike
Concepcion organizes an all-star recording entitled We’re all in the same gang, to
condemn gang violence. It featured King Tee, Body & Soul, Michel’le, Tone Loc,
Above the Law, Ice T, MC Ren, Dr. Dre, JJ Fad, Young MC, Shock G, Oaktown’s 3-
5-7, MC Hammer, and Eazy E (Warner Bros.).
• A commemorative book Stop the Violence: Overcoming Self-Destruction, by Nelson
George, published by the National Urban League, will be released in 1990. The STV
project will go on to generate at least $400,000 for the National Urban League's
empowerment programs in the inner cities. Stop The Violence would become a
popular slogan amongst community-based organizations, corporations and politicians.
• June 6--Voting activist organization Rock the Vote is born when a federal district court
judge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida rules that 2Live Crew’s As Nasty As They Wanna Be
is obscene.
• Hiphop Artists Against Apartheid featuring X Clan, Lakim Shabazz, Jungle Brothers,
UTFO, Ultimate Force, Grand Puba, Kings of Swing, Queen Latifah, Revolucion,
Solo, Linque, and Author X release a song entitled Ndodemnyama--Free South Africa
(Warlock).
• July 3--Slick Rick shoots Eilbert Henry and Mark Plummer with a .38 caliber
automatic in the Bronx for allegedly shooting up his car and attempting to rob him
outside a local club three months earlier. Police chase Rick’s car for more than two
miles until Rick slams it into a tree and is surrounded by cops. Breaking his leg in the
crash, Rick gets out of the car with his then six months pregnant girlfriend, Lids
Santiago. The police search the car and find six fully loaded weapons: two Tec 9
machine pistols; two .25-caliber handguns; a .38 caliber pistol, and a shotgun reported
stolen from the Richmond, VA Police Department. Rick is later arrested for and
convicted of attempted murder. The incident eerily echoes the lyrics of Children’s
Story from The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, which warns against a life of violence.
• Luke Skywalker (2Live Crew) battles Vanilla Ice.
• July 15--Twenty-two-year-old Troy Dixon, a.k.a. Trouble T-Roy, dancer for Heavy D
& the Boyz, dies in Indianapolis from injuries sustained in a fall from a 20-foot high
platform while the group is on tour. T-Roy’s life will later be commemorated in Pete
Rock & C.L. Smooth’s 1992 hit They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.) (Elektra).
• August--Signed to Def American Records, which is distributed by Geffen Records,
Houston’s Geto Boys are dropped when CEO David Geffen objects to the group’s
violent and sexually explicit lyrics, especially in the song Mind of a Lunatic. Rick
Rubin, head of Def American, decides to end his distribution deal over the incident.
• September--The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air debuts on NBC, marking the first sitcom
starring a Rapper.
• The first episode of In Living Color, a comedy ensemble show, airs on Fox. In
addition to live performances by prominent Hiphop artists, the show highlights the
street-dancing style of the Fly Girls, choreographed by Rosie Perez. The show comes
to be seen as a watermark, validating the influence of Hiphop on mainstream culture.
• Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em (Capitol), M.C. Hammer’s second record, is
released. It goes on to take the all time Rap album sales record with 10 million in
certified sales, passing the Beastie Boys’ previous record of 4 million of Licensed to
Ill.
1991 • Marley Marl, Tragedy, King Tee, Grand Puba, Def Jef, and Chubb Rock release a
song entitled, Keep Control (Cold Chillin), raising the awareness of Hiphop’s social
responsibility.
• Chubb Rock and 3rd Bass, with others, release a song entitled Bring ‘em Home Safely
(Select), encouraging Hiphoppas to consider the sacrifices of those that served in
Desert Storm.
• Rapper/actor Ice Cube, actors Cuba Gooding Jr., Lawrence Fishburne and Morris
Chesnut star in the film Boyz N the Hood. Directed by John Singleton.
• 3rd Bass battles Vanilla Ice and Marky Mark.
• NWA battles Ice Cube.
• Tim Dog battles Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and DJ Quik.
• Lyricist Lounge in NYC starts their open mic sessions.
• Sway, King Tech and DJ Joe Quixx broadcast the Wake Up Show in the Bay area on
KMEL.
• Big Daddy Kane appears in Playgirl Magazine.
• Main Source releases Live at the BBQ and Nas is introduced to the world.
• LL Cool J, MC Lyte, and De La Soul become the first Rappers on MTV Unplugged.
• January 27--Dr. Dre violently assaults Dee Barnes, host of the TV show Pump It Up
Barnes sues Dre, and as part of his agreement with the court, Dre records a little seen
PSA about domestic violence.
• March 4--The videotape of L.A. motorist Rodney King being beaten by police officers
on March 3 is broadcast nationally.
• March 18--Rapper Eazy-E attends a Republican Party fundraiser in Washington, D.C.
He donates $1,230 to the party and is later criticized by many for being hypocritical.
• May--Main Source release their debut album Breaking Atoms (Wild Pitch).
• June 15--Efil4zaggin by N.W.A. (Ruthless/Priority) enters the pop chart at No. 2
before going to No.1, the highest album debut since Michael Jackson’s Bad. It sells 1
million copies in two weeks, making it the fastest selling Rap record at the time.
• August 27--Public Enemy’s Chuck D files suit against McKenzie River Corp., which
markets St. Ides malt liquor, for sampling his voice in a radio commercial produced by
DJ Pooh. The parties eventually settle out of court for an undisclosed amount.
• October 11--Soon Ja Du, a Korean grocer in L.A. is convicted of voluntary
manslaughter of shooting black teenager, Latasha Harlins, in the head after a fight over
Harlins’s alleged attempt to steal a container of orange juice.
• November 16--Ice Cube’s Death Certificate (Priority) debuts at No. 2 on the pop
album chart, selling more than 193,000 copies in its first week. The album, which
ultimately is certified platinum, sets off protests against what are perceived as anti-
Korean, anti-Jewish, and anti-gay lyrics in songs like Black Korea and No Vaseline.
• December--U.S. District Judge, Kevin Duffy, finds Biz Markie and six other
defendants, including Warner Bros. Records, guilty of illegally sampling Gilbert
O’Sullivan’s 1972 hit Alone Again (Naturally) on Biz’s I Need a Haircut album. The
incident has a massive chilling effect on the use of sampling in Rap music production.
The Biz’s next album in 1993 will be titled All Samples Cleared.
• While attending a Hiphop celebrity basketball game promoted by Sean Puffy Combs
and Heavy D at the City College of New York, nine people are crushed to death when
a breakdown in security causes a stampede. People are quick to blame the tragedy on
Hiphop, but a City University of New York investigation concludes that the security
problems were not “isolated or unique” for events at the college.
• Professor Z and KRS-ONE form Human Education Against Lies (H.E.A.L.) and
releases an album entitled Civilization vs. Technology. The all-star 12 inch single
featured Harmony, Big Daddy Kane, Freddy Foxxx, LL Cool J, MC Lyte, Queen
Latifah, KRS-ONE, DMC, Jam Master Jay and Ms. Melodie. The album featured
Michael Stipe, Billy Bragg, Sister Carol, and Ziggy Marley. (Elektra/Edutainer).
• KDAY L.A., the country's only all Rap station, goes off the air, ending a seven year
run.
1992 • X Clan battles KRS-ONE.
• House of Pain battles DJ Quik.
• Luke Skywalker (2Live Crew) battles Kid N’ Play.
• King Tee, Yo-Yo, MC Eiht, B Real, Da Lench Mob, Kam, Threat, and Ice Cube
release a song entitled Get the Fist, in an attempt to create a Black United Front
(Mercury).
• The Poetess, Def Jef, Almigh-T, and Kool G Rap release a song entitled Love Hurts,
condemning domestic violence (Innerscope).
• FUBU Clothing is launched.
• The Guinness Book Of World Records features Tongue Twista as the world’s fastest
Rapper, spittin’ 598 syllables in one minute.
• January--Ice Cube release his album Death Certificate.
• January 23--Rolling Stone magazine pushes Public Enemy off its cover in favor of a
story on Clarence Thomas by Hunter S. Thompson. Earlier this month, PE released
the video By the Time I Get to Arizona, whose explosive imagery attacks that state for
not legislating a Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday. The song draws firm criticism from
state officials and lands Chuck D on Nightline.
• Prince Be of P.M. Dawn is pushed off the stage during Money B’s album release party
by KRS-ONE and the BDP crew for allegedly dissing KRS-ONE in an interview that
appeared in Details magazine. While the streets would hail KRS-ONE as a hero,
others would criticize KRS-ONE as being contradictory. KRS-ONE later apologizes
for the incident.
• February--Karl Kani begins production of his distinctively logoed, loose-fitting, street-
chic sportswear. Within two years, aided by ads that feature artists like Snoop Doggy
Dogg and Tupac Shakur, the company will earn between $30 million and $40 million.
• March 26--Former heavyweight champ and Hiphop hero, Mike Tyson is sentenced to
six years in prison for a July 1991 sexual assault on Desiree Washington.
• April 18--Totally Krossed Out by Kris Kross (Ruffhouse/Columbia) hits the charts,
propelled by the first single, Jump, and the duo’s backward and baggy clothes.
• April 29-- Los Angeles bursts into flames after the four police officers charged with
brutalizing Rodney King are acquitted. The L.A. rebellion eventually tally 58 dead and
damage approaching $1 billion. Rap artists like Ice-T and Ice Cube are cited in the
media as having predicted such a cataclysm in their lyrics. KRS-ONE appears on the
Arsenio Hall show to discuss the incident.
• After an eight-year run as one of the most successful sitcoms of the ‘80s, The Cosby
Show airs its final episode.
• May 18--I’ve never heard of them, President George Bush Sr. says of Ice Cube in
Newsweek. But I know that Rap is the music where it rhymes.
• June 29--In its cover story titled Rap and Race: Beyond Sister Souljah - The New
Politics of Pop Music, Newsweek reports that while addressing Jesse Jackson’s
Rainbow Coalition Leadership Summit, presidential candidate Bill Clinton quotes
Souljah’s comments from a Washington Post interview, but takes her words out of
context.
• Police groups nationwide call for a boycott of Time Warner products unless Warner
Bros. Records withdraws the song Cop Killer from the self-titled album of Ice-T’s
heavy metal group, Body Count. On July 30th President Bush Sr. calls the song sick.
A month later, Ice-T pulls it from the album.
• July--Tommy Boy Records drops artist Paris amid controversy, after an employee
leaks word of his song Bush Killa and his album artwork for Sleeping With the Enemy
(an assassination fantasy starring President Bush and Paris).
• December--Russell Simmons appears on the cover of Black Enterprise magazine. By
this time, his company, Rush Communications, is the second largest black owned
entertainment firm in the U.S. that feature artists like L.L. Cool J and the Beastie
Boys, the company will earn between $30 million and $40 million.
1993 • X Clan, Poor Righteous Teachers, Big Daddy Kane, Digital Underground, Ex-
girlfriend, Public Enemy, Sista Souljah, Freedom Williams, YZ, College Boyz, and
Two Kings in a Cipher release a song entitled Close the Crackhouse, speaking out
against the crack cocaine epidemic of the time (Polygram).
• Subroc, former DJ for KMD dies after being hit by a car.
• The Beastie Boys found Grand Royal Records.
• January 28--In a controversy over artwork and lyrics for his upcoming album Home
Invasion, Ice-T leaves Warner Bros. Records. He is quickly signed by Priority.
• February--Dr. Dre releases his debut solo album The Chronic (Death
Row/Interscope).
• April--EPMD breaks up.
• May 23--Hiphop Unity Rally is held at the Nation of Islam’s Muhammad Mosque #7
in Harlem.
• June 6--The Rev. Calvin Butts steamrolls offensive Rap music at a protest rally in New
York City. He encourages the crowd to trample the CDs and cassettes.
• July 14--Ronald Ray Howard, 19, is sentenced to death for murdering a Texas state
trooper the previous April. Howard claimed that Tupac Shakur’s song Souljah’s Story
made him do it, marking the first time that a specific song and artist are used as an alibi
for murder.
• Cypress Hill’s Black Sunday (Ruffhouse/Columbia) debuts at No. 1 on the pop chart,
and sells more than 260,000 copies in the first week.
• August 22--The sitcom Living Single, starring Queen Latifah, debuts on Fox, showing
that Latifah - who also founded her own label and management company, Flavor Unit
- can do more than just rock a rhyme.
• Forty-eight years after the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima (August 6) and
Nagasaki (August 9), Kris Kross are required to change the cover artwork for the
Japanese editions of their second album, Da Bomb (Ruffhouse/Columbia), when its
photo of a nuclear explosion and the title cut’s references to Hiroshima are deemed
offensive by executives within Columbia’s Japan based parent company, Sony.
• VIBE magazine is launched with Snoop Doggy Dogg on the cover. Snoop
subsequently appears on the September 30th Rolling Stone cover (with Dr. Dre), even
though his highly anticipated Doggy style debut hasn’t come out yet.
• November 7--Timberland executive vice president, Jeffrey Swartz says in a New York
Times story that while the company enjoyed a 46 percent sales increase from the
previous year, the urban market consisted of a negligible 5 percent of sales. This
blatant dis of the Hiphop nation’s support of the Hampton, N.H. based company’s
products incites an informal boycott of Timbos and spawns bootleg T-shirts
emblazoned **** TIMBERLAND.
• Around the time WBLS announces a ban on certain Rap records, New York radio
station WQHT (Hot 97) changes its format from dance to Rap and initiates the slogan
Where Hiphop lives, making it the only Rap based station in New York City.
• Eric B. & Rakim, the creators of such hits as My Melody, Eric B Is President, and
Paid in Full, split up and pursue their own solo careers.
• Hiphop Reggae artist Mad Lion debuts with his 12 inch single Shoot to Kill (Weeded).
1994 • Sean Puffy Combs establishes Bad Boy Records. The notorious B.I.G. releases Ready
to Die (Bad Boy).
• New York City’s Hot 97 begins to include Undaground Rap in it’s regular format
with well-known street Deejays mixing at prime times of the day.
• January--Harry Allen (The Media Assassin) forms Rhythm Cultural Institute (R.C.I.)
to begin documenting and awarding elements of Hiphop Kulture. To commemorate
this announcement, KRS-ONE organizes a massive conference at the Alphonse
Schomberg Center in Harlem, featuring Afrika Bambaataa and Zulu Nation, Kool DJ
Herc, Crazy Legs, Grand Wizard Theodore and others to discuss Hiphop’s proper
documentation, preservation and further development.
• February--Wu Tang Clan releases their debut album Enter the Wu Tang (36
Chambers), (Loud/RCA).
• Snoop Dogg releases his debut album Doggy Style (Death Row/Interscope).
• February 23--Representative Cardiss Collins (D-Ill) and Senator Carol Mosely-Braun
(D-Ill) hold hearings on Capitol Hill regarding explicit lyrics in pop music. The event
becomes known as the gangsta rap hearings.
• Whoomp! (There It is) by Tag Team, on the black owned label Bellmark, reaches
certified sales of 4 million copies, making it one of Rap’s biggest selling singles. The
song starts a catch phrase heard round the world.
• March 7--2 Live Crew win a copyright infringement suit brought by Acuff-Rose
Music, claiming that the Crew made unfair use of Roy Orbison’s Oh Pretty Woman.
The Supreme Court holds that 2 Live Crew’s Pretty Woman is a parody and is
therefore protected under copyright law.
• May 22--Masta Killa, part of the Staten Island Rap group Wu-Tang Clan, punches
journalist Cheo H. Coker in the eye because members of the crew disliked artwork
that accompanied Coker’s article in a recent issue of Rap Pages.
• July--Twenty-three-year-old Clarence Lars, a.k.a. D.J. Train, is burned to death in a
fire in his mother’s Los Angeles home. Train worked with the crew J.J. Fad on their
hit record Supersonic and later with M.C. Ren of N.W. A.
• Cypress Hill’s Black Sunday is certified double platinum.
• August 18--The Sugarhill Gang perform Rapper’s Delight at VIBE’s first anniversary
party. The crowd, including L.L. Cool J, Treach of Naughty by Nature, D.J. Premier
of Gang Starr, and Heavy D goes wild, highlighting this year’s resurgent interest in the
old school.
• September 28--The Source’s co-editor, James Bernard, writes a letter charging Source
publisher, David Mays, with conflict of interest for allegedly being the manager of the
Almighty RSO and for publishing a stealth article on the group unbeknownst to
Bernard and the editorial staff. Mays later denies having any proprietary interest in
the group.
• October—The Notorious B.I.G. releases his debut album Ready to Die (Bad Boy).
• November--The Universal Zulu Nation celebrates its 20th anniversary.
• Elektra Records drops KMD because of the controversial artwork for their Black
Bastards album. The cover shows a hanging cartoon figure, which is described by a
record executive as an Al Jolson character.
• After being coined the Greatest live Emcee of all time by a variety of critiques, judges
and writers, KRS-ONE publishes a how to book entitled the Science of Rap. Five
thousand of them are sold and/or given away. The Science of Rap was also published
in Japanese because of its high demand in Tokyo.
1995 • The Notorious B.I.G., Coolio, Redman, Ill Al Scratch, Big Mike, Busta Rhymes,
Black Moon, and Bone Thugs N’ Harmony release a song entitled The Points, in
tribute to the legacy of the Black Panther Party (Polygram).
• C. DeLores Tucker and William Bennett launch an anti-rap campaign aimed at Time
Warner.
• Buffy from the Fat Boys dies of a heart attack.
• Salt n’ Pepa are the first female Rappers to win a Grammy award.
• The Roots album, Do You Want More, brings live instruments back into Hiphop
popularity.
• March--Mercury of Force MD’s dies of diabetes complications.
• June--Mobb Deep release their debut album The Infamous (Loud/RCA).
• DJ Doo Wop releases his mix tape 95 Live.
• Eazy E dies of AIDS complications on the 21st.
• September 1--Sugar Shaft of the X Clan dies of AIDS complications.
• October 16--Million Man March in Washington D.C. is lead by Minister Louis
Farrakhan.
• Ice Cube, Mobb Deep, Ice T, Chuck D, Nice and Smooth, Wu Tang Clan, Da Lench
Mob, DA Smart, and Kam release a song entitled Where ya at•, in support of the
Million Man March (Mergela).
1996 • Tupac battles Mobb Deep, Notorious B.I.G., Sean Puffy Combs, Lil’ Cease, Lil’ Kim,
and Chino XL.
• Dr. Dre, RBX, KRS-ONE, B Real and Nas release a song entitled East Coast/West
Coast Killas in an attempt to end the illusion of an East Coast/West Coast fued hyped
up by irresponsible music magazines (Aftermath).
• DJ Tony Touch releases 50 MC’s, a mix tape that featured 50 of Hiphop’s best
Emcees of the time.
• The Temple of Hiphop, a Hiphop preservation society and ministry is founded by
KRS-ONE, affectionately known as The Teacha.
• March--The Fugees release The Score (Columbia).
• September 13--Tupac Shakur dies from gunshot wounds after being shot at while
driving through Las Vegas with Death Row CEO Suge Knight who is also shot but
survives.
• September 22--The Nation Of Islam hosts a historic event in an effort to end the
East/West rivalry many well-known Rappers, executives and activitsts attend.
• Jeru tha Damaja battles Foxy Brown.
• Fugees battle Jeru tha Damaja.
1997 • Despite its high ratings and importance in Hiphop Kulture, Yo!MTV Raps is taken off
the air.
• February--Suge Knight is sentenced to nine years in prison for a parole violation.
• March--Rapper Notorious B.I.G. dies of gunshot wounds while sitting in his car after
attending a Vibe magazine industry party.
• September--KRS-ONE’s I Got Next album is certified gold. Not only did this album
include a Temple of Hiphop registration and questionnaire form, in which over 80,000
Hiphoppas filled out and returned to the Temple of Hiphop, but the video for the
albums first single, Step into a world, revitalized Breakin, Poppin and Lockin on
television and in the clubs.
1998 • Snoop Dogg leaves Death Row Records for No Limit.
• NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani implements an Anti-Graffiti Task Force.
• May 18th-24th --Temple of Hiphop announces the first annual Hiphop Appreciation
Week—a time for Hiphoppas to reflect upon the state of Hiphop and how it may be
productively passed on to our children and the rest of the world.
• October—Graffiti artist, Dondi, dies from unconfirmed causes.
• Kurput battles DMX.
• Queen Latifah battles Foxy Brown.
1999 • Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists is published by Ego Trip publications.
• Darryl C., DJ of the 15-Man Crash Crew dies of cancer.
• Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen sell Def Jam to the Universal Music Group for a
reported $100 million.
• Temple of Hiphop airs on 92.3 the Beat in Los Angeles on Sunday nights at 9pm-
12am.
• Rapper Freaky Tah of the Lost Boyz is shot and killed.
• Ma$e leaves the Rap industry to pursue God. His Atlanta based ministry would be
called S.A.N.E. (Saving A Nation Endangered).
• February 15--Rapper Big L is shot and killed.
• March 19--Rappin’ 4tay sues MCA Music and Warner Chapell Music for breach of
contract, fraud and discrimination.
• April--Famous civil rights activist Rosa Parks sues Rap group Outkast for allegedly
exploiting her name on their tribute song Rosa Parks, which appeared on their album
Aquemini.
• May--Bigga B. former Loud Records executive and well-known Los Angeles club
promoter dies of respiratory failure.
• Erika Fuller and Candice Hoys of Harvard University organize the Next Level Hiphop
conference.
• Mayor Ron Gonzales of San Jose launches Tag You Lose to crack down on Graffiti
writers.
• May 17-23--Second Annual Hiphop Appreciation Week is celebrated all over New
York with lectures, conferences and concerts. Professor Z and KRS-ONE distribute
the rough draft of a book that would later be called the Gospel of Hiphop.
• July--After years of broadcasting, the Baka Boys of LA’s Power 106 KPWR, quit after
the station decides to decrease its Rap music play.
• August--Ed Lover quits Hot 97 in New York City to reunite with his radio co-host
Doctor Dre on Los Angeles 92.3 The Beat (KKBT) morning show.
• September--Khalid Abdul Muhammad holds 2nd Million Youth March in Harlem.
• Producer Sam Sneed who was diagnosed with brain cancer receives a $10,000
donation from Busta Rhymes to help pay for medical bills. Other artists also stepped
forward to perform charity.
• November--A state of emergency is declared in Seattle when some 45,000 activists
protest against the World Trade Organization (WTO) for exploiting labor abroad and
environmental issues.
• December--Philadelphia’s DJ Swift is accidentally shot and killed.
• Jazz legend, Grover Washington Jr. dies of a heart attack. He was greatly sampled in
Rap music production.
• December--Curtis Mayfield dies.
• December 27—Sean Puffy Combs, Jennifer Lopez and Hiphop/Reggae artist Shyne
are involved in a shooting incident at a club in New York City, where one woman was
shot in the face. She would survive. Puffy would be later acquitted, but Shyne would
get sentenced to 10 years in prison for the incident. Jennifer Lopez was not a suspect.
Sean Puffy Combs would later change is name from Puff Daddy to P Diddy.
