Illegal Foreign Object

♫“Now, the party didn’t start till I walked in

And I probably won’t leave until the thing ends

But in the meantime, the in-between time

If you work your thing, then I’ll work mine”♫

I attended a Christian grade school for all but one of the first seven of my elementary years. The outlier, my 3rd-grade year, was a wild, transitional time wherein my parents finalized their divorce (ushering an end to some of the shouting), my grandmother (my dad’s mom) threw us out of our home (it’s a long story for another time), and my mom, sister, and I packed up and moved a half hour away to another small town where my mom began her teaching career.

The move and Mom’s new job meant a new school for me and my sister — I was the first student to step into the first class my mom ever taught. The change also meant making new friends, which didn’t always go swimmingly but opened my eyes to a new world. I had my first fight that year (a school bathroom-destroying brawl with Charles Hawkins that resulted in me also being the first student my mom ever paddled). I also broke my first bone (a toe, about which I never told my mom), shoplifted my first item (a candy bar from a Texaco), and was first introduced to hip-hop.

♫”Now sit back, relax, put on your headgear

Get ready for a trip through the Atmosphere

Gonna take you for a ride through the Twilight Zone

I don’t need a space ship, I use my microphone”♫

Sometime that year, my sister and I watched the movie Breakin’, the hip-hop tale of Ozone, Turbo, and Special K (and their quest to have breakdancing accepted by a horde of stodgy windbags as a respected form of dance). We loved the movie and the soundtrack, so for Christmas, I asked for a boombox and a rap tape (zero specification, just “a rap tape”).

My mom came through in the clutch (as she always has), gifting me a small Magnavox D8367 boombox and two compilation cassette tapes. One of the cassettes, Kings Of Rap, was my introduction to Run-D.M.C., Fat Boys, UTFO, and Whodini. The other compilation is a cassette I’ve spent two decades trying to reacquire. The cassette had Kartoon Krew’s “Inspector Gadget” on it, and that was the only thing I could recall about it — until two minutes ago when I remembered that it also had the Chicago Bears’ coordinated stomp to Super Bowl XX, “The Super Bowl Shuffle”. Adding that song to my online search has unearthed hip-hop gold. The compilation is called Urban Exposure: Rappin’ From The Street* — it, like Kings Of Rap, was released by K-Tel — and its rediscovery has made my day.

♫”Cause MCs crumble when we rumble

Some think I’m soft just because I’m humble

So all you MCs, I hope you’re real good listeners

Cause in this battle, I’m takin’ no prisoners”♫

I’m not sure I can properly convey how important the Urban Exposure: Rappin’ From The Street compilation was in my development as a music lover. It, along with Kings Of Rap, acted as a sort of appetizer to a new world. To that point, I mostly listened to whatever was on the radio (or whatever my mom or dad had on cassette). That meant Anne Murray and Frankie Valli when I was riding around with Mom and either country music or absolute quiet when driving with my dad (because he needed to “listen to the car to be sure it’s running right”). You couldn’t hear hip-hop on the radio back then — you had to seek it out. In that way, it became special to me — something I could call mine.

Urban Exposure: Rappin’ From The Street is a fantastic look back at hip-hop in the mid-80s. It’s wild to think how massive the genre has become — how it’s become so accepted as a part of the mainstream. I don’t relate to a lot of what’s out there today — but my mom didn’t relate to what I was diggin’ — and so it goes. I just think it’s cool that a genre of music the experts called a fad (hell, some refused to call it music) has grown into something with so many different layers and textures (and so much rich history).

*If you’re interested in hearing Urban Exposure: Rappin’ From The Street, click here.

Tracklist:

1. Run-D.M.C. – Jam-Master Jammin’ (Remix) 10/10
2. The Chicago Bears Shufflin’ Crew – The Super Bowl Shuffle 7/10
3. Schoolly D – P.S.K. ‘What Does It Mean’? 10/10
4. Mantronix – Bassline 9/10
5. Force M.D.’s – Forgive Me Girl 10/10
6. Whodini – Escape (I Need A Break) 10/10
7. The Kartoon Krew – Inspector Gadget 10/10
8. Disco Four – Get Busy 10/10

Grade: 95