Towards the end of 1987 I had amassed a decent collection of rap albums dubbed TDK’s, which was all well and good but hardly official since I didn’t actually own any records. My birthday was coming up and ‘my old Earth’ somehow managed to figure out that what I really needed was a 12″ single of the new Public Enemy. She handed me a gift-wrapped copy of ‘You’re Gonna Get Yours’, and I spent the rest of the day trying to find how many guns I could spot on the front cover and listening to the ‘Terminator X Gettaway Version’ over and over. I already had the album on tape, and it took me a while to realise that the song on the B-side was some Newest Latest material.
Eventually I threw it on the family record player, and once that series of opening horn hits unleashed the ear-splitting drone of ‘Rebel Without A Pause’ I stood there in awe… My mother was less enthusiastic: ‘It’s a bit repetitive, isn’t it?’. I ignored her, transfixed by the voice of power and the drums of death. This was like nothing I’d ever heard before. The next week I took the record over to play to the dudes who had first started dubbing me tapes on the other side of town. The record had the same effect on them, and some of the older kids asked if they could borrow it to tape that week. Not even a teenager at the time, having high school kids want to borrow my record seemed like an esteemed badge of honor, and I was more than happy to oblige.
Amazingly, they actually returned the record to me a few weeks later…
Fat Boys – Fat Boys
I want to say it was “The Show”/”La Di Da Di” on 7″, but it was actually “Rat Rapping” by Roland Rat
Step Off – Melle Mell
Roxanne Roxanne 12 inch. Still have it too.
Liberated that Kurtis Blow ‘The Breaks’ from my cousin SHE was way ahead of the curve; got that ‘Paid In Full’ 12″ from her too……both still in my possession (I think..better go check again!?!)
Sidenote: She had that Prince 1999 double album,jacket artwork was SICK!
december 1988
eric b & rakim ‘follow the leader'(still my favourite album of all time!)
&
beastie boys ‘license to ill’
… Dee Jay Please, pick up the phone, I’m on the request line…
My first rap release? Run DMC’s first album on cassette in ’84. My first vinyl? EPMD’s “You Gots To Chill” 12 inch and Sparky D’s “Throwdown” 12 inch in ’88.
Jazzy Jeff, “King Heroin” .. I expected to hear some choice chops when I got home but I realized that this wasn’t Jeff Townes. In ’85, videos weren’t poppin’, I had no idea what DJ Jazzy Jeff looked like. I had tapes from Philly parties that he did. I live in Jersey and the kid who I got dubs from was from the Brotherly Love tenement. I asked him if Jeff had braids because I peeped the album before I copped it at Strawberries. He said that he knew Cosmic Kev and that he’d seen Jeff spin. He said Jeff had braids. Jeff never had them shits.
Small time hustler-dismasters with production by the great chuck chill out, Money well spent.
raising hell- run-d.m.c.
before that i had a couple of tapes with all the hip hop i’d heard on the radio between 1985-86, i was 11 or 12 y.o. and fell in love with hip hop instantly.
Yup….still got’em both!?! ^^ ( see comment abovery) I’m cool as the Otha Side baby!
either ‘the magnificent jazzy jeff’ 12inch or steady b ‘what’s my name’ lp.
RUN DMC “Mary,Mary/Raising Hell” 7″.I mustve been around 11 years old. Played mostly Raising Hell and preferably at 33, as the drums were even harder that way + Run and DMC sounded like demons.
The first ever record I had given to me was a Patrick Gammon-Do My Ditty 45 but the first records I ever bought was Zapp-Zapp II LP and Prince Charles And The City Beat Band – Stone Killers LP.
Necro cockroaches 12″ was my first actual vinyl. This sites the best at making me feel young.
LL Cool J – Bigger And Deffer (actually bought it months before I got my first turntable, had to tape it at my friends’ house)
soon followed by Paid In Full and most amazingly by the Christmas Rap compilation!
Jazzy Jay & T La Rock – “It’s Yours” with the picture sleeve. Didn’t even know what it sounded like. I bought it because I thought the names sounded cool