Editing New-school hip-hop (section)

==Prehistory==
{{Listen
| filename     = 
| title        = "Sucker M.C.'s"
| description  = [[Run-DMC]]'s "[[Sucker M.C.'s]]" was released as the [[B-side]] to the group's 1983 debut single "[[It's Like That]]". "Sucker M.C.'s" is considered to be an essential record in the development of new-school hip hop.
}}
Elements of new school had existed in some form in the popular culture since hip-hop's birth. The first [[MC#Hip hop|MC's]] rapped over [[turntablism|DJs]] swapping back and forth between two copies of the same record playing the same drum break, or playing instrumental portions or versions of a broad range of records.<ref>Toop, p. 14</ref><ref>Toop, p. 17</ref> This part of the culture was initiated by [[ DJ Kool Herc]] in 1973<ref>Hermes, Will. [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/arts/music/29herm.html "All Rise for the National Anthem of Hip-Hop"], ''New York Times'', October 29, 2006.  Retrieved on September 9, 2008.</ref>  using breaks from [[James Brown]], [[the Incredible Bongo Band]] and English rock group [[Babe Ruth (band)|Babe Ruth]] in his block parties.<ref name="upsh">Upshall, David (writer, director, producer). ''The Hip Hop Years'', Part 1, [[Channel 4]], 1999.</ref> Brown's music—"extensive vamps" in which his voice was "a percussive instrument with frequent rhythmic grunts", and "with rhythm-section patterns ... [resembling] West African polyrhythms"—was a keynote of hip hop's early days.<ref name="upsh" /><ref>Collins, Willie. [http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090628140121/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_bio/ai_2419200141 "James Brown"], ''St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture'', January 29, 2002. Retrieved on July 17, 2008.</ref>  By 1975, [[Grandmaster Flash]] and [[Afrika Bambaataa]] had taken up Kool Herc's breakbeat style of DJing, each with their own accompanying [[rapping|rappers]]. Flash was especially associated with an important break known as "The Bells"—a cut-up of the intro to [[Bob James (musician)|Bob James]]'s [[jazz]] cover of Paul Simon's "Take Me To The Mardi Gras"—while Bambaataa delighted in springing occasional rock music breaks from records like "[[More of the Monkees|Mary, Mary]]", "[[Honky Tonk Women]]", "[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (song)|Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]" and [[Grand Funk Railroad]]'s "[[Inside-Looking Out|Inside Looking Out]]" on unsuspecting b-boys.<ref>Toop, p. 66</ref><!--ref for Flash + Bells to be added, fairly sure this is in Toop, connect to "Rock The Bells" and "Peter Piper" below. link to legal youtube emulation of this break?-->

The earliest hip-hop records replaced the DJ with a live band playing funk and disco influenced tunes, or "[[Interpolation (popular music)|interpolating]]" the tunes themselves, as in "[[Rapper's Delight]]" ([[Sugar Hill Records (hip-hop label)|Sugar Hill]], 1979) and "[[King Tim III (Personality Jock)]]" (Spring, 1979). It was the soft, futuristic funk closely tied to disco that ruled hip hop's early days on record, to the exclusion of the hard James Brown beats so beloved of the first b-boys.<ref>[[Andrew Ross (academic)|Ross, Andrew]]. "Old master flash.", ''[[Artforum]]'', March 1, 1995.</ref> Figures such as Flash and Bambaataa were involved in some early instances of moving the sound away from that of a live band, as in Flash's DJ track "[[The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel]]" (Sugar Hill, 1981), and even innovating popular new sounds and subgenres, as in the synthesizer-laden [[electro music|electro]] of Bambaataa's "[[Planet Rock (song)|Planet Rock]]" ([[Tommy Boy Records|Tommy Boy]], 1982). Often though the rawer elements present in live shows did not make it past the recording studio.

Bambaataa's first records, for instance, two versions of "Zulu Nation Throwdown" ([[Winley Records|Winley]], 1980), were recorded with just drums and rhymes. When Bambaataa heard the released records, a complete live band had been added.<ref>[[Steven Hager|Hager, Steven]]. "Afrika Bambaataa's Hip-Hop", ''Village Voice'', September 21, 1982. Reprinted in Cepeda, p. 23</ref> Something closer to his intentions can be heard on a portion of ''Death Mix'', a low-quality bootleg of a [[Universal Zulu Nation|Zulu Nation]] night at James Monroe High School in the Bronx,<!--This night was in 1980, need cite --> released without his permission on Winley Records in 1983.<ref>Shapiro, p. 4</ref> Likewise on the bootleg ''Live Convention '82'' (Disco Wax, 1982), [[Grand Wizard Theodore]] cuts the first six bars of [[Rufus Thomas]]'s "Do the Funky Penguin" together for five and a half minutes while an MC raps over the top.<ref>Toop, p. 67–69</ref> Grandmaster Flash's "Superrappin'" ([[Enjoy Records|Enjoy]], 1979) had a pumping syncopated rhythm and The Furious Five emulating his spinbacks and needle drops and chanting that "that Flash is on the beatbox going ..."<ref>Toop, p. 90</ref> The beatbox itself however, a drum machine which Flash had added to his turntable set-up some time earlier, was absent on the record, the drums being produced by a live drummer.<ref>Toop, p. 126</ref>

[[Kool Moe Dee]]'s verbal personal attacks on [[Busy Bee Starski]] live at Harlem World in 1982 caused a popular sensation in hip hop circles. In the same way, groups like the [[Cold Crush Brothers]] and [[Force MDs|The Force MCs]] were known for their routines, competitive attitude, and battle rhymes. Tapes of battles like these circulated widely, even without them becoming viable recordings.<ref>Wilder, Chris. "Mutual Respect", ''[[The Source (magazine)|The Source]]'', November 1993.</ref><ref>Woodson, AJ. "Whatever Happened to Battles???", ''On The Go'', 1997.</ref> Apart from some social commentary like [[Melle Mel]]'s one verse on "Superrappin'", [[Kurtis Blow]]'s ruefully comedic "[[The Breaks (song)|The Breaks]]" ([[Mercury Records|Mercury]], 1980) and a spurt of records following the success of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message" (Sugar Hill, 1982), the old school specialized lyrically in party rhymes.<ref name="Shapiro, p.327">Shapiro, p.327</ref><!--mention obscure but notable exceptions predating "The Message"? Tanya Winley, Brother D. and musically "Punk Rock Rap"?-->