It was twenty years ago today...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Tomorrow's Pazz and Jop Poll Poll is no ordinary one - it is 1986, era of THE HIP HOP WARS. Now admittedly the Hip Hop Wars had very little if anything to do with the Village Voice but I'm sure we won't let that stop us. To get us in the mood here is an MP3 from each side of the battle lines:

Schooly D - "PSK (What Does It Mean?)" - the 'first gangsta rap' record (so says Wikipedia), Schooly D was championed by certain sections of the NME.

The Bodines - "Therese" - the second single by Glossop indie band The Bodines was included on C86, the legendary compilation put together by certain other sections of the NME.

These should whet your appetites for the feast of commentary (well erm possibly) to be unleashed at lunchtime tomorrow.

Comments

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i reviewed schooly d -- he was performing in EGHAM (http://www.egham.co.uk/)!

[koganbot]

Interesting that this would be a hip-hop war. Indie generally had no trouble w/ hip-hop in the mid '80s, as hip-hop could be rationalized as raw and angry and underground and of the lower orders, hence acceptable to indie dopes. (Schoolly D was not on a major label, by the way.)

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Bodines better by virtue of being half the length.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Isn't this war kind of unfair? I mean in what world could hip-hop NOT win?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Except it DIDN'T! And that is why Conor McNicholas is now editor of the NME and YOU are NOT!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think it could be argued that in the WORLD AT LARGE as opposed to a SMALL INDIE OFFICE hip-hop did win!

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

haha i just remembered hiphop's DEFEAT (in this context) involved the flirtation -- by the ENTIRE HIPHOP-HITLER FACTION -- with:
1. the komedy poonk stylins of the DED KENNEDIES!
2. the p0rno-goth daubs of ELP cover-artist H.R.GIGER!!

i shall gather my thoughts abt this: i am unsure of the exact dates that the war flickered into life -- i think in fact schooly d predated it (as koganbot points out, psk came out on an "indie" -- but a version of this very argt raged at the time)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I picked Schooly D because his front cover was used in the "that was the 80s that was" freebie the mag later did to illustrate the Wars.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Although it's fallen from a great height calling the NME "small indie office" is a big much, methinks.

[giddyoldgoat.livejournal.com]

As an NME reader during this period it was totally possible to like both Schooly D AND the Bodines - just as many, many Comics Journal readers cld like the X-men AND Love and Rockets - it def felt like the division between rap and indie was as much an NME editorial invention (to stir shit, excite debate, boost sales whatev) as it was a 'reflection' of ppl's rec consumer choices/tastes. Perhaps this kind of factionalism hardened during the 80s - especially as the music papers got more and more indie-rock focussed/friendly.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah this doesn't surprise me. Certainly when I started reading the music press (end of 88) the NME still had the feeling of being a very broad church and you quickly picked up on which writers were into what. But of course my understanding of the hip-hop wars is that they weren't really about music but about whether the NME should focus on music (this may be well off base)

Melody Maker in the late 80s seemed much more dogmatic about its indieness and I avoided it as a result.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Not sure what you mean by that. But in case anybody gets the wrong idea, 1986-88 was MM's golden age (and was very pro hip hop then) whereas NME lost the plot completely.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This was right at the end of 88 - it seemed to be into noisy US indie and goth basically: NME was funnier, friendlier, and had a much better handle on pop and dance music (and INDIE DANCE ahem).

I realised I had underestimated MM a couple of years later but I still maintain that in 89/90 the NME was broader and better.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i am inclined to agree w.jeff abt losing the plot: however MM's pro-hiphopness is a USER'S MANUAL OF ROCKISM

my sage judgment wd be that MM had more better writing and a clearer line in critical thinking at this time, but it achieved this by SHARPLY restricting what it was "ok to be ok about" -- as i've said before, NME did still leave a space for "wire-type music" whereas MM just shut that out TOTALLY; given the known facts about mr st*ve s*therland, the "ethnic cleansing" feel to this wz palpable (to their credit, many of the MM writes fought against it)

i think NME wrote very badly about music that deserved better and has suffered in consequence -- compared eg to SKINNY PUPPY and YOUNG GODS anyway

since nobody is saying much about them...

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

...I'd just like to say I have always loved both of these tracks. They are kind of complementary: Therese is best listened to with the treble right up, whereas PSK... would have actually blown up my speakers with the bass on full, probably. Therese is fabulously urgent and sort of tripping over itself...