september14–27, 2020 | new york 63duoM.O.P.beingthefurthest
thingfrommainstream rap stars,
“AnteUp”becameubiquitous: It
hasappearedorbeensampled in
filmsandTVshows,was adopted
asa superstarwrestler’s theme
song,andevenprompted a
performancebyAnna Kendrick on
Ellen. Hip-hopis allabout taking
what’syours,andnosongin the
genreembodiesthat spirit more.
10.
RoxanneShanté,
“Roxanne’s
Revenge”
(1984) There is no discussion of rap
without the notorious Roxanne
Wars, which ran from 1984 to- As history tells it, Brooklyn
rap group UTFO put out aviral (by
1984 standards) song that chastised
a young woman named Roxanne
for not giving them the time of
day. Enter a then-14-year-old rap
prodigy named Roxanne Shanté,
who dragged the group to hell and
back using a sample of their own
record. Famously freestyled and
recorded in one take, “Roxanne’s
Revenge” birthed a culturewar
that inspired anywhere from 25
to 100 response records as word
of the assassinating track spread
through the boroughs. Youcould
say it invented rap’s diss economy.
The track led to UTFO’s label
claiming the copyright to the
sample—one of the earliest cases of
rap getting litigious—and forcing
Shanté to remove it (and her many
expletives) from later releases.
2.
Grandmaster
Flash and the
Furious Five,
“The Message”
(1982) Co-produced by Sugar
Hill’s in-house hitmaker Clifton
“Jiggs” Chase, this was written
by Melle Mel and another Sugar
Hill mainstay, Duke Bootee,
and would go on to become
the defining track of hip-hop’s
first wave. A vivid storytelling
masterpiece that effectively
captures the nervous energy
of Reagan-era NYC streets.
3.
The Notorious
B.I.G., “Juicy”
(1994) NYC is the birthplace of
hip-hop, but when Death Row
Records was dropping record-
breaking albums in the early ’90s,
L.A. had the hot hand. As he’d
say years later, the Notorious
B.I.G. wanted “to sell records like
Snoop”—and with “Juicy,” he made
his mark. Before signing to Bad
Boy Records, he had sold drugs,
his mama had cancer in her breast,
and his first child was on the
way. “Juicy” is hip-hop’s definitive
declaration of the American
Dream: Biggie’s perseverance
through crime, unpaid bills, and
disparaging teachers to achieve
wealth and appreciation of his
talents. As much as his own
success, the song celebrated hip-
hop’s arrival as an artistic and
cultural force. “Juicy” peaked at
No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100,
and Ready to Die went double
platinum a year after its release.
Biggie was King of New York,
and “Juicy” was his soundtrack.
4.
Nas, “N.Y.
State of Mind”
(1994) The first full song from
Nas’s 1994 album, Illmatic, shows
why hip-hop saw him as the
’90s successor to ’80s architect
Rakim. While outsiders mayassociate NYC with the glitz of
Times Square, Nas thinks of
crime: shoot-outs with police,
armed robberies in broad
daylight, zombified drug addicts.
A prodigious 20-year-old Nasir
Jones dropped a different imageor
adage for survival (“I never sleep,
’cause sleep is the cousin of death”)
in seemingly every line of his
extended verses. DJ Premier’s beat,
a grim soundbed with a lurking
bass line, a haunting piano key,
and a Rakim sample, is an equally
bleak match for Nas’s rhymes.It’s
one of the earliest images of the
NYC that rappers would chronicle
for decades with both desperation
to escape and pride for home.
5.
Wu-Tang Clan,
“C.R.E.A.M.”
(1994) The acronym stands for
“Cash rules everything around
me,” and it didn’t become lingo
for money just because it rolls
off the tongue. The brainchild
of producer-rapper RZA came
with a gritty, dungeon-dwelling
sound and a crew of rapperswho
describe their lives of crimewith
candor, sharpness, anda diverse
assortment of personalities.This
song and the album Enterthe
Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)set
the stage for a flood of street
rappers from NYC to buildon
Wu-Tang’s successes, whilethe
group itself would divideand
conquer, creating solo starsbefore
coming back together tocontinue
its collective preeminence.
6.
Bobby Shmurda,
“Hot N----”
(2014) As Shmurda finishesa
lengthy seven-year sentencefor
gang conspiracy and guncharges,
New York DJs have madesurehe’s
remained relevant. “Hot
N----” is influenced by Chicago
drill and southern trap,with
the kind of rhythmic andlyrical
aggression typified by GS9,the
East Flatbush gang Shmurda’saPHOTOGRAPHS:
CHI MODU (BIGGIE); AL PEREIRA/MICHAEL OCHS AR
CHIVES/GETTY IMAGES (WU-TANG)
Wu-Tang
Clan
on Staten
Island,
1993.The
Notorious
B.I.G.,
1995.part of. It’s a song that fits with
the Brooklyn drill movement
happening now: menacing
and boisterous, taking it to the
pavement instead of the high-rises.- & 8.
MC Shan,
“The Bridge” &
KRS-One, “The
Bridge Is Over”
(1986/1987) You can’t talk about
seminal beefs in hip-hop without
mentioning these songs, and you
can’t talk about one without the
other. Regional pride in hip-hop
always comes with a side of ego,
so when MC Shan released “The
Bridge,” his point was to tell the
world where he was from: the
notorious, sprawling Queensbridge
Houses. However, people in the
city are territorial, and KRS-One,
who hails from the South Bronx,
vented his frustrations on “The
Bridge is Over,” calling out MC
Shan, as well as several other
members of the Juice Crew, and
asserting his dominance. And
that is how the Bridge Wars were
born. They’ve long since been
(mostly) squashed, but they live
forever in hip-hop history books.
M.O.P., “Ante
Up (Robbin
Hoodz Theory)”
(2000) Despite this song’s
unapologetic ode to armed robbery
and the Brownsville, Brooklyn,
and the BeatsThe City