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| Posted by: Seattle Zen
- Donor [554192913] Thu, Oct 31, 2002, 11:36
Man, it has been a bad week.
Run-DMC member is fatally shot in studio
As a white kid growing up in a town with no black people, I started listening clandestenly to rap music back before "the crowd" had ever heard of it. When I was a freshman in high school in 1983, my friend and I would listen to a show on KUOP out of Stockton, CA on Friday nights that played the rap from groups like Afrikka Bambata and the Soul Sonic Force, Curtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash, Whodini, UTFO, Ice-T, Nuculeus, and others, but our favorites were Run-DMC. In 1984, myself and three friends went to see Run-DMC in Stockton as the only terrified white people amongst 4,000 mostly blacks as Run-DMC toured on their first album. I didn't tell anyone at school other than these three friends that I liked rap, no one else had even heard of it.
You might imagine my shock at the begining of my senior year in high school when Raising Hell came out and I watched Run-DMC and Aerosmith ON MTV! They played "You be illin'" at my high school dances. Dancing to my favorite group with big haired girls whose favorite groups just last week were Def Leopard and Brian Adams, I felt vindicated ("It's like a little bit of New Jersey right here in CA!"). Run-DMC's success catapulted the Beastie Boys, then Public Enemy and gave old-school rap a bright heyday in 1988-89.
Like a comet entering the atmosphere, Run-DMC shone bright and burnt up in a hurry. Their Raising Hell tour was the first nationwide arena tour and America's first exposure to lethally violent rap audiences. My tastes in music changed, but Run-DMC always is dear to my heart. Jam Master Jay, God DAMN that DJ made my day! |
| | | 1 | Mattinglyinthehall
ID: 1832399
Thu, Oct 31, 2002, 11:56
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...like the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker
He's a maker a breaker and a title taker
Like the little old lady who lived in a shoe.
If cuts were his, he would be you.
I'm not lying, y'all, he's the best I know,
and if I lie, my nose will grow
like the little wooden boy named Pinochio,
and you all know how the story goes!
News was tough for me, too. You couldn't be a teenager in the mid '80s and not idolize them around these parts (at least I thought so at the time). A few of their songs that never got played out still sound good, "Beats to the Rhyme" and "Me, Myself and My Microphone" (with Living Colour) are two of my favorites.
Peter Piper lyrics
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| | | 2 | Myboyjack
Leader
ID: 108231015
Thu, Oct 31, 2002, 12:02
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I still occasionally put on my shoestringless addidas. bad times.
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| | | 3 | KevinL
Donor
ID: 48222515
Thu, Oct 31, 2002, 12:41
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My first real concert was right after graduation, summer of 1986, when 2 friends and I went to Public Hall in Cleveland, a small, old, rundown arena, to see show with Whodini, LL Cool J, and Run-DMC on the bill, as well as local star MC Snow. There was a special, unannounced opening act, the Beastie Boys, who I had heard on the radio but I didn't even know they were white.
Growing up on a cow farm in the midwest may seem an odd origin for a rap fan, but my friend turned me on to rap around '84 and pretty soon the whole track team was listening. I had the white Adidas, but I never could figure out how to lace 'em right.
This shooting is sad to me, because Run-DMC was never "gangsta rap" that you think of when you hear this kind of thing. Definitely time to jam to some Run-DMC tonight.
Peter Piper picked peppers, and Run rocked rhymes
Humpty Dumpty fell down, that's his hard time
Jack-Be-Nimble was nimble, man, he was quick
But Jam-master's much faster, now Jack's on Jay's ...
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| | | 4 | beastiemiked
Sustainer
ID: 17414316
Thu, Oct 31, 2002, 13:42
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Who's house? Run's House.
Too bad he wasn't at Run's house. It's truly sad news for everyone.
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| | | 5 | Tortfeasor
Donor
ID: 55912113
Thu, Oct 31, 2002, 14:25
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Truly sad. Really just rocked my world this morning when I saw it.
Seattle Zen--I was much like you. Grew up listening to rap, even before Run DMC, but they were what really made the scene great. I still know every word of every song on Raising Hell. One of the best rap albums ever.
It's funny how this sort of thing has become the norm in the world of hip-hop and rap. Not that murder is or ever was normal, but this sort of violence plagues (and scares many people away from) probably the most underrated form of music.
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| | | 6 | katietx
ID: 439241915
Thu, Oct 31, 2002, 15:13
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Although it appears I'm old enough to be mother to most of you (YIKES), I do remember Run DMC. My son is 30, and they were one of the only early rap groups that I "approved"
As a humorous side note - he (my son) had a parakeet named Bonehead who only danced to Run DMC.
Very sad indeed.
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| | | 7 | Hoop Hop
ID: 47552915
Thu, Oct 31, 2002, 15:29
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A moment of silence, please.
The first concert I ever attended was a Run-DMC/Public Enemy/EPMD/DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince gig at the Providence Civic Center.
A true pioneer of hip hop.
A very sad news item.
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| | | 8 | KevinL
Donor
ID: 48222515
Thu, Nov 07, 2002, 09:03
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Run and DMC retired (under that name.)
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| | | 9 | Seattle Zen
ID: 49112418
Fri, Oct 26, 2007, 19:32
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"No snitching" is a tough act to crack.
The mother of rap icon Jam Master Jay knows the truth: The people who brazenly pumped a bullet into her son's head remain on the street. So do the witnesses -- some of them Jay's friends -- who can identify the killers. Law enforcement knows it, too. Five years, a substantial reward and a lengthy investigation haven't changed a thing when it comes to arresting the murderer of the Run-DMC turntable legend.
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| | | 10 | nerveclinic
ID: 105222
Sat, Oct 27, 2007, 05:45
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Wow it's amazing to see how many people come over to the political boards and never post anything...or much. Interesting. Just an observation not criticism.
I was never "into" rap/hip hop.
I was about to graduate from college when Run's first record came out...I bought it. I also bought Beastie Boys and Public Enemy. Not because I cared at all about hip hop, just because it was great music and must have tracks at the time if you paid attention to music.
I also bought "The Message" 12" by Grandmaster Flash in 1982.
I played the first Run DMC record into the ground.
Very sorry to hear the news.
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| | | 11 | nerveclinic
ID: 105222
Sat, Oct 27, 2007, 06:05
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I sent a note to Drudge telling him he should be running this story. It's not on his page.
We'll see if he picks it up.
I sent Zen's Seattle PI link, anyone see a better story about this?
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