Does Hip-Hop Music Stand on the Shoulders of Disco?

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop music, discos were the rage in 1973 among many Blacks and Latinos. Rappers used disco music as the background to their rhymes.

In 1971, discos in midtown Manhattan, such as the Ginza and La Martinique, developed a large and devoted African American following. The music got people up on the dance floor. Early hip-hop did the same thing years later but for a younger, more urban crowd. While discos initially flourished in midtown and downtown, hip-hop started in the Bronx and uptown. Disco crowds dressed up, while hip-hop crowds dressed down, often wearing jeans and sneakers. However, there was a significant similarity: Just as with discos, hip-hop MCs needed a danceable soundtrack to rap over. What better way to keep people on the dance floor than using a track from a successful disco record? Years later, as the appeal of hip-hop broadened, rappers started creating their own music beds. However, the hip-hop genre might not have gotten off the ground without disco music.

The first commercially successful hip-hop recording was "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugar Hill Gang. "Rapper's Delight" features the rhythm track from Chic's "Good Times." But the Sugar Hill Gang used it without permission. Nile Rodgers first heard "Rapper's Delight at Leviticus, the luxe disco at 45 W. 33rd Street. After Rodgers complained, the Sugar Hill Gang added Rodgers' name as a writer on the label, which enabled him to receive a share of the royalties.?

?Many other hip-hop songs incorporated disco sounds. Here are a few examples:

• "One Time Two Time Blow Your Mind" MC Rock Lovely
• "Pump Me Up" Trouble Funk
• "Wrap It Up" Touche
• "On the Real Tip" Def Jam
• "Vicious Rap" Tanya Winley
• "I Can't Wait (To Rock the Mike)" - Spyder D.
• "Superrappin'" Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five

Early disco DJs often extended the most exciting part of a record by using two turntables, e.g., DJs at Leviticus began using this technique in 1971 with songs like "Theme From Shaft." Dancers were mesmerized by the extended length of the segment with rapid cymbal strikes as they danced the Penguin. Later, hip-hop artists used the same technique but made it fresh by rapping over the top.

The meteoric rise of disco and the slow emergence of hip-hop defined the late '70s. The '70s were an extraordiinary decade for music. Read more about this in?After Dark: Birth of the Disco Dance Party, the best self-published book of 2022 in the Autobiography'Memoir category according to Publishers Weekly.?After Dark: Birth of the Disco Dance Party?is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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