Guy Reams (00:00.994)
Day 52, the bridge is over. I'm highlighting the most influential poets in my life this week, an appreciation of Thanksgiving. One poet that keeps coming back to me is Chris Parker, commonly known as KRS-1. The reason he became influential to me is complicated and it has a long history. I will talk through the short of it here. I lived in Colorado in the early 80s. My community was always a few years behind the coasts when it came to style.
But the one thing that came faster was the music. I remember a culture clash in the 70s and 80s between the punk rock movement, psychedelic rock, disco, and what we now know now as the Top 40. Although all the kids listened to the Top 40 on Saturday mornings, everyone wanted to be cool by listening to something more obscure on the bus rides or at recess.
I have good memories of singing lyrics from Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd, Another One Bites the Dust by Queen, and a few Kiss, Sex Pistols, and other songs that were avant-garde for the time. During sixth grade, the breakdancing craze hit my school. Recess and after school became a dance party where everyone would try different moves on cardboard laid out on the grass. I tried for weeks to learn The Worm.
I was finally able to master it and was able to demonstrate my proudness in front of my classmates. This was my first real exposure to what would later become known as hip-hop. This music was far from mainstream at the time, but there was a certain fascination with the ability to play music that you could dance to in such an impromptu and low-cost fashion. I did not understand the social movement that was going on in the inner-city boroughs of New York during the 70s and early 80s.
My community was hit by an economic depression but nowhere near the impact that was felt in places like the Bronx. Young kids were being raised in an environment of an ugly scene of abandoned and sometimes crumbling buildings. They could not afford to go to the disco and they certainly could not enjoy things like musical instruments. They were just too expensive. However, the human spirit as we learn throughout history cannot be crushed. And with that emerged an entirely new style of music and a blossoming of culture.
Guy Reams (02:18.517)
It started to be common for DJs to spin records and repurpose sounds from old records into a musical production of sorts. They would create a sound that was uniquely their own and they would often have dancers come and hit the floor during breakdowns between sets of music. This became what we now know as break dancing and over the time there started to evolve MCs that would keep the crowd going during these times. This soon enough spilled over and did the streets as a form of entertainment.
in various areas, especially in the large concrete areas that could serve as a gathering space underneath overpasses. I had moved away from Colorado and now I was in California. It was 1986 and I was getting a bit restless with my Beach Boys, Buddy Holly and 50s genre my mother loved so much. I still appreciated that music, but I had started to gravitate towards the 70s rock scene in terms of fascination.
Early in 1986, Run DMC had brought this new vibe of music mainstream with their collaboration with Aerosmith's Aerosmith Unwalk This Way. We all got to see it many times on MTV. It was this song and also a fascination with the music I was exposed to during the breakdancing scene for me to start listening to a college radio station that I could pick up at my house. There was an hour of reggae, which I thought was fascinating because I love the style of music.
However, after this hour, a DJ would come on that was a fan of the New York hip hop scene. This is where I was exposed to how words could become powerful. I was exposed to an ongoing war between hip hop artists that we now call the Bridge War. There was a DJ named Marley Marl and an MC known as Sean. They had a popular song out in this community called The Bridge.
I remember being invited to a dance party where a bunch of cardboard was laid out and everyone was dancing and this song was played. That is the time I first heard it.
Guy Reams (04:19.103)
In my article you can find a link to the original song. In the song there's an allusion to the idea that hip-hop might have started in Queensbridge, New York. Now MC Shawn would later say in an attempt to bury the hatchet so to speak, that he was only referring to the hip-hop scene in his community and not necessarily all of hip-hop. However in 1986 an MC out of the South Bronx would respond one day at what we now call a rap battle.
A local DJ in New York played his response. Later on, KRS-One would release this as a single as part of his new crew called Boogie Down Productions or BDP. During this response, he is kind of mocking the style of MC Shawn and Marley Marl. And the track is is called The South Bronx. You can also listen to that. I provided a link in my article. There's a great documentary you can also watch on this. It's called The Beef. You can find it on Amazon Prime.
and also on YouTube. There are several back and forth exchanges between the two artists that are recorded and this begins this whole idea of talking about one-upsmanship in hip-hop songs. This is kind of where it started. The next big release by MC Sean was with his new group called The Juice Crew and the recording was called Kill That Noise in which they take shots at KRS Fun for making this a big deal. I also provided a song linked to the song of my article.
I think most will agree that the battle was somewhat ended when KRS won and BDP released their response called The Bridge is Over. This was a song that was a complete parody and in a very much a mocking tone. The battle would continue back and forth between songs and it probably ended when there was some bloodshed. I don't think the bloodshed was caused by the rap battle, but probably for some other reasons. But one of the members of the BDP band was killed tragically.
But the battle would continue to escalate from time to time with various references until the two MC Sean and Karras Wen decided to join forces later in their career and released a joint album. You can listen to the song, The Bridge is Over. I provided a link in my article as well. This is the first song that I actually heard on that college radio station that one day I listened to it. And I was quickly enthralled by the battle of words going on in the hip hop community.
Guy Reams (06:43.896)
This was exciting for me because the artistic use of rhetoric and this form of communication was fascinating. I became a total fan. No need to recite any of the verses here, wouldn't do any justice. I think they have to be listened to in order for you to really get it. Needless to say, I believe that most people would give the nod to Chris Parker in terms of sheer style and ability to think on his feet. From what I've heard, his street corner proudness was absolutely legendary.