The Funky 4 plus 1 is my favorite early rap group...by far...they were the first rap group to be aired on SNL and national TV. And Sha-Rock raps anyone under the table. I also have all the Sugar Hill Records 12 inches...

Rap does let people that can't sing have a voice but not anyone can rap, that's a lie. You have to be a good writer, have a story to tell, have a good flow, and be clever.

"Rap is likely to influence popular music for years to come." Yeah no kidding lol

"It is very black and very urban and people are afraid." lmfao!!! Hey does anyone else recognize Bruce Leroy's younger brother on the right @ 3:49

How far we've come

thats why hip hop is cool, DJs are just as important as MCs in the culture.

Correct me if I'm wrong. 2:52... Mr. Freeze 2:57... Prince Ken Swift 3:03... Lenny Len 3:07... Devious Doze 3:12... Kippy Dee 3:16... Frosty Freeze

I'm so glad I was introduced and was alive so see, experience real hip hop back in the day. When I first heard "Rapper's Delight" - I knew it was LeChic's song / beat - which had massive airplay at the time...but Sugar Hill Gang, I never heard anything like it. I was blown away, and fell in love with the genre.

always heard of this special, now I see it

Loved it!

@ 3:44,,, the kid who starts Rappin is from the Movie - "THE LAST DRAGON" !!!!

Sorry buddy, rap is not going to be here for years to come but 3 DECADES STRONG !! Change all of pop culture. And still going!!! LONG LIVE HIP HOP!

that was so cool

3:26 "37 YOOTS"

4:48 what rap turned into

I was in the single digits in 81. I loved hip hop back then but I didn't know, until now, how pervasive hip hop was, even in 1981.

cool !! respect !!

Great footage! Anyone can't rap. But i think more people have confindence to rap but are not good or even great. look its 36 years later people are still rappin and its replaced Rock n Roll! Most of the participants are black and very good! Its changed the individuals lives but hasn't changed our condition as a people. Its called Bboying see that officer called it rocking! HeyI remember that box commercial with EWF ha! ha!

5:25 this is the start of poor messaging - now everyone claiming something that’s not theirs

This was really well done. Much more objective compared to what you see on Fox News.

Exactly

One of THOSE KIDS WHO SITTING THE CAR AND RAPPING is Leo, Brian, THE YOUNGER BROTHER OF MASTER G FROM THE SUGARHILL gang

Great Story! Hugh Downs is so down.

5:37 is what i watch when im sad.

History lesson

🤜 🤛

04:37 Nuri - Let's Vote !!

The portable beatbox...funny how we believed that.

Although Debra Harry had a rap song, she couldn't rap. Anyone can make a rap song but not anyone can rap. Those who sustain are those who can rap. When a rapper leaves the biz instead of the biz leaving him, then that's somebody that can rap ie Rev. Run.

Back in 80s, when the ONLY time you saw Black people on television was if 1) they were reporting crime, or 2) filling stereotypes on sitcoms, or 3) when a local news station was reporting the "latest craze happening in the inner city ghetto". It was usually cringe, but what could you do? You were happy to see people who looked like you on television. I don't miss the 1980s.

Introducing: NWA 😢

Hip hop has been very destructive and demoralizing to the Black community!!

i didnt think rap music would take over everything and destroy r&b,funk, and soul music completely!

LISA ROBINSON!!!!!!!! RADIO 1990!

It was supposed to uplift and inform. It got into the wrong hands.

"Not everyone can sing but anyone can rap". You think so huh?

Didn't even know that rap was already very popular back in the very early 80s. I listened to a certain genre of funk that was like a spark and which lasted for only a few years, from about 1979 to 1983. Up until the mid 80s, there were only 2 black music radio stations on AM radio and 2 FM ones in the L.A. area. Ignorant people foolishly dismissed early 80s funk as disco when it wasn't even close to it. A lot of funk had a slower beat like Cutie Pie and More Bounce to the Ounce. But alas, that genre was just too complex for the masses to understand, so they easily dismissed it. A lots of prejudice and "racism" played into it as well. If you don't and won't understand something, you just write it off as unimportant. And if you hate it because only a certain group that is vilified by the masses listens to it, then all the more reason to disdain that kind of music. Within that genre was a sub genre called hard-core funk, and that was even more underground than funk in general. Only the black AM radio stations in L.A. gave it airplay. It encompassed some rap and that is where I probably first heard rap that was surrounded and enveloped by actual instruments, complex harmonies and great rhythms. It was one of the most creative musical styles, mostly because it was underground. Unfortunately, funk in the early 80s was probably the peak of funk in general and one the greatest musical styles ever produced. Artists and bands thrived. A few like the Bar Kays and Cameo made lots of money, but most were in it because they LOVED to produce good, quality music. They cared about their craft, and it wasn't so much about catering to big business and producing shallow, boring, redundant crap. The latter occurred after 1984 and it only got worse when technology took over and the masses seemed to be satisfied with only superficial cRap. It was - and still is - about tinkering with a formula without regard to quality craftsmanship and real talented musicians (i.e. people playing real instruments). Cool jazz was probably one of the most interesting and outstanding genres in jazz. Great artists like Miles Davis left their mark and left a powerful effect on jazz forever. This is true about funk and early 80s rap in general but unlike jazz, R&B and funk became stilted, sterile and boring. It's just too bad that the unique hooks, rhythms and harmonies of early 80s black music no longer became infectious and pleasing to the ear. How I yearn for that era. Like classical music and cool jazz, it's timeless and never disappointing even after listening to a song produced 33 or 34 years ago.

All that footage....no love toward the mix Djs dominating at that time.. Or did i over look it?

Notice how he refers to the 'satirists' at 4:58 ? And then, you may also notice that the subject matter and what the "Preppy Rapper" is saying, is pretty much synonymous with the Rap shit you hear on the radio these days. To me, this is a hilarious demonstration of the fact that Pop Rap has become a joke. Real Hip-Hop lives underground. All the nice cars and fancy homes shit is a complete joke, just people got caught up in the BS culture and started buying into this nonsense.

5:09 - Uh, there have been plenty of blacks in South America _and_ several European countries for centuries. 😄

Oh no, not anyone can rap.

the closing words of this report say it all: "not everyone can sing, but anyone can rap." this is a perfect description of how talentless rap music is. and don't get me started on subject matter. rappers used to rap about social issues with some meaning behind the lyrics, now it's all about hos, money and pretending to be gangsta. fuck rap and hip-hop.

and now black people don't play instruments like they used to anymore...

What are you saying 😏 do what you want