Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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according to hip-
love style of rapping, with Isaac Hayes, Barry White, and the poetry style of rapping with
The Last Poets, The Watts Poets, and the militant style of rapping with brothers like
Malcolm X and Minister Louis Farrakh
a funny rap by Shirley Ellis, and radio DJs who would rhyme and rap before a song
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By 1971, party DJs like Kool Herc were rapping over vinyl as they spun it, manipulating
the vinyl itself with scratching and other techniques to create a new sound called hip-hop.
Russell Simmons was a sociology student at the City University of New York when he
heard his first rapper- Eddie Cheeba at the Charles Gallery on 125th Street- in 1977.
Simmons and his younger brother Joey, who would later become Run of the rap group
Run DMC, started promoting rap shows on campus. Simmons named his promotion
for rap artist
Kurtis Blow, whom Simmons was managing. The song was a club hit, and Mercury
Records began distributing the single to record stores around the country.
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people...except Simmons. While still in school, he put most of his energy into promoting
his records and shows.
In 1983, Simmons befriended Rick Rubin, another rap-obsessed student promoter. Rubin
was a white, longhaired, bearded former heavy metal fan, who lived in dark wraparound
shades and a black overcoat. He had released a local dance hit by T La Rock and Jazzy
versity that was one of
Simmons and Rubin formed Def Jam Records with $5,000.00 and put out a single by an
unknown fifteen-year-old rapper named LL Cool J. While Rubin concentrated on
producing the music, Simmons worked on getting LL Cool J out of his favorite cowboy
boots and into the Kangol hat and sneakers that were to become his trademark. The single
sold 50,000 copies. By the following year Def Jam had sold more than 300,000 units of
seven different twelve-inch singles.
Their success attracted CBS Records, which offered to help them promote and market
four new acts a year. In two years with CBS, Def Jam scored three monster hits: the first
two-million-seller Bigger and Deffer
Licensed to Ill.
would be interested in hip hop. Just as W.C. Handy had marketed the blues to whites
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