LEONARD GREENE: Reminiscing on 50 years of hip hop in NYC and giving the artists their due | CPT PPP Coverage

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My cheesy claim to hip hop fame is that I still know all the words to “Rapper’s Delight,” even the verses that Big Bank Hank allegedly stole from rap legend Grandmaster Caz, but that’s another story.

From sun to sun and from day to day

I sit down and write a brand new rhyme

Because they say that miracles never cease

I created a devastating masterpiece

These were the good times, as in “Good Times,” the Chic song sampled by the “Sugar Hill Gang,” whose recording of “Rapper’s Delight” in 1979 delivered hip hop to the radio and record masses.

The song has received a lot of attention recently as New York City and the nation prepares to celebrate hip hop’s golden anniversary this month.

It went by fast, the 50 years. My second favorite part of the celebration is the excuse and opportunity to reminisce. Tagging along with my big brother to house parties in a friend’s basement. Riding our bikes to block parties where a deejay camped out on someone’s porch spinning records while neighbors danced on a street blocked off by barricades.

Peter Gunz, a Bronx rapper schooled in the roots of hip hop, reminded me about how competitive deejays were at the time.

It wasn’t just about mixing songs, he said. It was about who had the best beats. The best deejays would scour record shops in search of obscure albums with upbeat interludes they could string together. Then they would put tape over the record labels to hide the names of the songs.

“The deejays didn’t want you to know where the beats came from so you couldn’t steal their beats,” Gunz said.

My favorite was “Love is the Message,” by MFSB. The song was released in 1973, the same year hip hop was born in the recreation center of a Bronx apartment building.

With “Love is the Message,” the best deejays could mix the pulsating instrumental section over and over again while an aspiring MC freestyled verses over the endless break.

We used to call that song the Brooklyn national anthem, even though it was the signature sound of Philadelphia music.

My favorite part of the 50th anniversary celebration is the re-emergence of the old school artists, wizards like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, MC Lyte, Run-DMC, Big Daddy Kane, Roxanne Shante, KRS-One, Rakim and Doug E. Fresh.

For most, hip hop started as a labor of love that became a creative way to make some cash.

But many of them, like Grandmaster Caz, got robbed, after giving so much more to the movement than they ever got back.

Like artists in other music industries, many of the old school rappers and deejays made little money off the records that carried the culture. hip hop made them famous, but fame didn’t pay their bills.

“We got a couple of billionaires, but the inequities haven’t really changed at all,” said hip hop executive Chuck Creekmur, the CEO of AllHipHop.com.

Without royalties and record deals, the way for many artists to make money is on stage, at concerts and live events.

But who wants to hear a 55-year-old rapper?

“They never say that to Lionel Richie and Stevie Wonder,” said Gunz, 54. “R&B legends can perform forever. I hate that hip hop has an age limit. The older rappers are hurting. No health insurance, no money. These are the guys who started hip hop.”

Well, now they’re getting their flowers. Let’s hope it comes with some cash.