Hip-Hop Evolution

Hip hop's story in the 1970's was all about overcoming.

Overcoming poverty, violence and neglect.

But the 80's held an entirely different promise for hip hop:

success.

The early hits turned hip hop into a business,

rappers into stars

and put money in everyone's pockets.

And it was a kid from Queens who would envision hip hop's future

and become its first mogul.

Hello.

Hey, it's Shad for Russell Simmons.

Thanks for your time, Russell.

I'd love to start by asking you about Hollis, Queens.

I grew up in Hollis, Queens. Um, when I moved in it was

mostly a black neighborhood. There were few white families left,

and the community was a lower middle class

African American neighborhood.

It quickly became the heroin capital of Queens,

and it destroyed the fabric of the community.

And... and that was right there on our corner.

That corner drew a lot of us to it,

and some of us didn't all sell heroin and take heroin.

Some of us sold weed. I was one of them.

I was fortunate enough to escape. Most of my friends didn't.

Eventually, I got shipped off to City College,

which was a big deal for me going there

to Harlem and discovering the hip hop world.

About 1977 I saw Eddie Cheba Rap.

And D.J. Hollywood and the Cold Crush Brothers

and Melle Mel and the Furious 5. Those names were fantastic.

I never seen nothing like it.

It was the next generation ushering in a new idea.

Everything was uncharted.

I didn't know what I wanted except, you know, to be cool for that moment

and the music I wanted to give it to everybody.

Instead of selling drugs, I started promoting parties,

and that was a real shift. You know, I had aspiration to survive.

Russell really liked to party.

But in the day, when he was straight,

never got high in the day. He only got high at night.

He wasn't into today. He was into tomorrow.

Russell was always looking forward.

Not only was he granted access everywhere,

but he wanted to go everywhere and he was welcome everywhere.

I remember the first party I gave,

Kurtis Blow performed at the Hotel Diplomat.

I brought Grand Master Flash downtown.

Flash came alone and let Kurtis be his MC.

I remember exactly what he said,

"People in the place they base in the face

you're about to see first place in the rap race.

Sounds are here so good to ear, have no fear,

Kurtis Blow is here." It was electrifying.

I met Russell in college. Russell was a promoter.

And so I told him about what I wanted to do,

breaking into the music industry,

make records, then do films and all that stuff.

He looked and he realized, "Wow, this kid is serious."

So, Russell became my manager shortly after that.

After we made Christmas Rap,

we went out to twenty-two different labels

trying to sell this record. They said no.

So, we knew that Frankie Crocker

was the number one DJ in New York City, WBLS.

We found out Frankie used to hang out after work

at a club called Leviticus.

Russell said, "Look this is what we gonna do.

We want to take this record and we'll pay the DJ.

When Frankie comes in and sits at the bar,

gets his first drink, we want the DJ to play the record,

we gonna have a whole college crew

in the house and we just gonna lose our mind

when that record comes on." Russell said, "Now, let's go,"

and the DJ threw on "Christmas Rap."

The crowd went crazy! Whoa, whoa! Whoa!

Everybody's dancing and doing their best move.

Frankie's like...

"What is this?" He got up, went over to the DJ,

and he said, "What's the name of that song?"

The guy says, "It's Christmas Rap.

It's the artist right there, Kurtis Blow."

He shook my hand and, "Nice to meet you, young Kurtis."

And on Christmas morning,

Frankie Crocker played the record.

I couldn't believe it. I was upstairs,

I was smoking a joint in the attic.

Oh, shit. I ran downstairs

and there it was, Christmas Rappin' on the radio.

Next thing I know, I was on a plane going to Amsterdam.

The record was playing all over Europe,

and I couldn't believe it. I'd never been on a plane.

I had to get off the plane in Amsterdam,

and it was Kurtis Blow and myself

and it was like, "What do you want, Mr. Simmons?

I knew we made it 'cause they can call you Mr. Simmons.

I said, "I'd like some cocaine and some pussy."

And I knew made it when he said, "Of course."

Kurtis Blow is the first solo MC

of the recorded era. Here comes a Christmas record

and they're still playing it in February and March.

Kurtis Blow had a lot of pop appeal.

He was good looking, he was well spoken,

he had charisma, but there was nothing about him,

except for the fact that he rapped,

that represented a huge break

with the R&B that had preceded him.

Russell's big fight during the Kurtis Blow era.

He was in the studio when they were making those records,

and he kept saying it was too much music.

But he didn't have a lot of creative input.

Russell really wanted to make a record

that really reflected the sound that he heard in his head

from the street.

Christmas Rap was Russell Simmons' first hit,

but it wasn't the hit he wanted.

Russell wanted to make hip hop on his own terms.

He wanted to take hip hop back to its roots,

and he'd find the right kids to do this

in his own backyard.

He formed a group that would eventually become known

as the Beatles of Hip Hop.

-Thanks for the time. -Thank you. Glad to be here, man.

I'd love to ask you about the development of RUN-D.M.C.

I met Joseph Simmons.

We went to the same elementary school.

Joe was a veteran already.

He DJ'd for Kurtis Blow since he was 12 years old.

He said "Yo, my brother's Russell Simmons," this and that.

Now I know his brother was managing Kurt

and doing all of that. Then one particular day,

Run found all my rhymes that I was writing

just pretending to be the Cold Crush.

So, he saw that. He was like, "Darryl,

you wrote all these rhymes?" And I was like, "Yeah, it's like

fucking school work. I'm a brainiac. Yes, I'm a genius."

And I remember the day he said, this was ninth grade,

he looked at me and said, "Whenever Russell lets me make a record,

I'm putting you in my group."

It was like he was speaking a foreign language to me.

I said, "What the fuck did he just say?" and didn't think none about it.

My brother Joey was a very good DJ.

He used to cut records in the attic

and he cut so fast he just between the music.

That was an amazing thing to watch him do.

Kurtis would say faster than a speeding bullet from a gun,

my disco son, DJ RUN and he would cut the records.

He rapped also with Kurtis a lot,

so, Joey kept honing his craft until one day

he played me some ideas and stuff,

and I thought maybe he could make a record.

Joey brought his man, D.M.C. Well he's a great rapper.

And this is DJ Jam-Master Jay,

and he convinced me that they would make a record.

And we did.

When we made Sucka M.C.'s, everybody's saying,

"Uh, okay then, tomorrow we put the bass and guitars in."

"No, man, we ain't fucking no bass and no guitar, it's done."

And they were like, "It's done? There's no music."

I said, "Yeah, it's done." And at the time,

no one, no engineer, no one understood.

I said, "No it's done. Why would it not be done?

It's dope, right?" "Yeah, it's dope."

"Well what the fuck, what do you want to do it?"

So doing that, without music,

without anything but the scratch on it,

it seems like a pretty simple thing to do,

but at the time it seemed like a very hard thing to do.

Everybody's perception was,

"Nobody's gonna wanna listen to...

empty beats with a dude rhyming about chicken

and collard greens and St. John's University."