From Music

To this day, I can't convince anyone that I actually have listened to Hip-Hop for 32 years. I think it's because they can't imagine me listening to songs by gangsters about "ho's" and "gat's". That's not the Hip-Hop I listen to. I heard my first Hip-Hop song when I was 12: Rapper's Delight by Sugar Hill Gang. One of the greatest stories every told. I was a music freak by age 5. When I became old enough to earn allowance, I used it to buy singles. Think about it. It's only natural that a 7-year-old girl who watched Soul Train every weekend in the 70's, hula hooped and roller skated would fall in love with funk and soul and eventually Hip-Hop. I learned all the words to Rappers Delight and sung along to the EP hundreds, maybe even thousands of times. I immersed myself in the story line and I could visualize chicken that tasted like wood, soggy macaroni, a bottle of Kaopectate, a super hero in panty hose. To me it was like a bedtime story on steroids. The only thing missing was visuals. In the 80's my brothers and I listened to Run D.M.C., The Beastie Boys, Ice Cube and Grand Master Flash. I also learned all the lyrics to The Message and at age 16 I felt it was imperative that I see the Grand Master in person. So, when he came to The Country Club in Hollywood, I saw him...twice. I enjoyed the first show so much, I stayed for the second. I was a tiny bit dismayed when I realized both shows were exactly the same. My fandom for Hip-Hop flowed into the 1990's when I listened to a lot of A Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys and De La Soul. I listened to an all Hip-Hop AM station (the old K-DAY) as often as possible.

From Music

In the late 90's/early 2000's I listened to KPWR 106 but it seemed like the peace-promoting, think for yourself, have fun brand of Hip-Hop disappeared from the radio waves. That, and I was so immersed in graduate school I stopped listening to music so I could study. The other day my husband got me a compilation CD that includes a lot of the songs I listened to in the 80's and 90's and it revived my memories of listening to Hip-Hop day and night throughout my 20's and how much fun that was. If you were a closet Hip-Hop lover in the 80's and 90's like me and want to hear some "old school", type "M.O.S. Anthems Hip-Hop" into your Google search field and you'll find several places to download it for free. The compilation includes artists like Run D.M.C., A Tribe Called Quest, Snoop Dogg, House of Pain, Special Ed, DJ Quick, Cypress Hill, Common, Dead Prez, Public Enemy and much, much more. Yes, some of these songs have gang references and explicit language but many are just your standard poetic, fun and sometimes thought-provoking tunes that make you want to dance. That’s the Hip-Hop I listen to.