Ninth in a series of posts analyzing and celebrating old-school hip hop.
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SPOONIE GEE & THE TREACHEROUS THREE | “THE NEW RAP LANGUAGE” | 1980
For MCs who bite
The fast-talking rhymes
They’re gonna feast
So get ready to eat
Moe Dee’s the originator
So you might as well starve
Cause you can’t catch this fast beat
(Hit it, Moe!)
Although it was a constituent element of “golden-age hip-hop,” uptempo rhyming has long been relegated to an infrequently heard subgenre and yoked with an artless term of art: “fast rap.” Dizzying scorchers like Big Daddy Kane’s “Raw,” Ultramagnetic MCs’ “Ain’t It Good to You,” Eric B. & Rakim’s “Lyrics of Fury,” Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise,” Organized Konfusion’s “Releasing Hypnotical Gases,” and Percee P & Ekim’s “Lung-Collapsing Lyrics” became thin on the ground in the latter half of the ’90s, receding into an endless desert of blunted midtempo tracks that didn’t swing and went nowhere.
There was the occasional tremor. Big Pun’s scattershot flow pricked up golden-age ears in 1998. Bun B’s guest verse on Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’” stood out in 2000 for being in syncopated double-time. Underground MC/producer Edan released his canon-proposing mix Edan the DJ Presents Fast Rap in 2001. “Ghost Is Back,” the lead track on Ghostface Killah’s 2006 album More Fish, was an exhilarating fast-rap tribute over the instrumental of Eric B. & Rakim’s “Know the Ledge” (1992), its title echoing Kool G Rap’s similarly neck-snapping “Kool Is Back” from 1990.
“Fast rap” wouldn’t exist (and the golden age wouldn’t have benefited from its ear-grabbing urgency) if it weren’t for the innovations of old-school Harlem crew the Treacherous Three, led by a quiet, determined wordsmith named Kool Moe Dee. Moe formed the original Treacherous Three in 1978 with fellow Harlem MCs Spoonie Gee and LA Sunshine. Spoonie snuck off one day in 1979 and recorded the first example of “street” rap on wax, “Spoonin’ Rap,” which became a local neighborhood hit. His casual delivery distinguished his flow from the stentorian, crisply enunciated, radio-jock style most MCs used at the time.
If Spoonie was the “metropolitician of the microphone,” Moe was its mental politician — rap’s first intellectual. (His lifelong quasi-academic analysis of the art of rap resulted in the 2003 taxonomy There’s a God on the Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs.) Inspired by a throwaway line Kid Creole of the Furious Five said onstage before passing the mic to Melle Mel, Moe invented his quadruple-time style while still in high school, impressing the lunchroom (and future Spoonie replacement Special K) one day over a cut from Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters.
Spoonie’s uncle was Bobby Robinson, a longtime Harlem-based producer and record store owner whose Enjoy label became the conduit for some of the earliest rap records. When Bobby agreed to let his nephew record “Love Rap” for Enjoy, Spoonie brought his old crew to rock the flipside. Outside of Guinness Book of World Records oddities by Twista, there are few faster raps than “The New Rap Language,” with its relentless Gatling-gun flow—sixteenth-note syllables over eight minutes of funk. The live musical accompaniment (drums, bass, percussion) was the work of prodigious drummer/bandleader Pumpkin (and friends). It’s a virtuoso drumming performance — tighter than the Meters’ Zigaboo Modeliste (what isn’t?) but swinging hard in a simlarly loose fashion (the MCs are more metronomically on the one than Pumpkin). Spoonie manages to sound laid back even at this breakneck pace, but the Treacherous Three just kill it, working variations of Moe’s style with precision and force.
In the following year, Moe would demolish reigning Bronx party rapper Busy Bee in a torch-passing battle at Harlem World, his first couplet ushering in rap’s lyrical age — “Come on, Busy Bee I don’t mean to be bold / but put that ba-diddy-ba bullshit on hold.” The speed, syntax, and lyricism Moe demonstrated that fateful night began with “The New Rap Language.” We’ve been catching up ever since.
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ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES: LUC SANTE on Spoonie Gee’s “Spoonin’ Rap” (1979) | DALLAS PENN on Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) | WERNER VON WALLENROD on Kurtis Blow’s “Rappin’ Blow” (1979) | DJ FRANE on Blowfly’s “The Incredible Fulk” (1980) | PAUL DEVLIN on Jimmy Spicer’s “The Adventures of Super Rhyme” (1980) | PHIL DYESS-NUGENT on Funky 4 + 1′s “That’s the Joint” (1980) | ADAM McGOVERN on Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5′s “Freedom” (1980) | DAVID ABRAMS on Blondie’s “Rapture” (1980) | ANDREW HULTKRANS on Treacherous Three & Spoonie Gee’s “The New Rap Language” (1980) | TIM CARMODY on Afrika Bambaataa & The Jazzy 5′s “Jazzy Sensation (Bronx Version)” (1981) | DREW HUGE on Grand Wizard Theodore & The Fantastic Five’s “Can I Get a Soul Clap” (1981) | OLIVER WANG on Grandmaster Flash’s “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel” (1981) | DOUGLAS WOLK on Busy Bee’s “Making Cash Money” (1982) | ADRIENNE CREW on Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5 (featuring Melle Mel and Duke Bootee)’s “The Message” (1982) | DART ADAMS on The Jonzun Crew’s “Pak Jam” (1982) | ALEX BELTH on Malcolm McLaren & The World’s Famous Supreme Team’s “Buffalo Gals” (1982) | JOSHUA GLENN on Wuf Ticket’s “Ya Mama” (1982) | PHIL FREEMAN on Malcolm X with Keith LeBlanc’s “No Sell Out” (1983) | NATE PATRIN on Afrika Bambaataa’s “Death Mix Live, Pt. 2″ (1980/1983) | BRIAN BERGER on Grandmaster & Melle Mel’s “White Lines (Don’t Do It)” (1983) | COSMO BAKER on Run DMC’s “Here We Go (Live at the Funhouse)” (1983/1985) | COLLEEN WERTHMANN on Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” (1983) | ROY CHRISTOPHER on Ice-T’s “The Coldest Rap” (1983) | DAN REINES on L.A. Dream Team’s “The Dream Team is in the House” (1985) | FRANKLIN BRUNO on The Lockers.
HIP HOP ON HILOBROW: DJ Kool Herc as HiLo Hero | Gil Scott-Heron as HiLo Hero | Slick Rick as HiLo Hero | Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels as HiLo Hero | Afrika Bambaataa as HiLo Hero | Biz Markie as HiLo Hero | Eric B as HiLo Hero (forthcoming in November) | U-God as HiLo Hero | Slug as HiLo Hero | Adam Yauch as HiLo Hero | Ghostface Killah as HiLo Hero | DJ Run as HiLo Hero (forthcoming in November) | Flavor Flav as HiLo Hero | Scott La Rock as HiLo Hero | GZA as HiLo Hero (forthcoming in August) | Schoolly D as HiLo Hero | Aesop Rock as HiLo Hero | Notorious B.I.G. as HiLo Hero | Melle Mel as HiLo Hero | Rick Rubin as HiLo Hero | Eminem (forthcoming in October) | Rakim as HiLo Hero | Ol’ Dirty Bastard as HiLo Hero | Madlib as HiLo Hero | Talib Kweli as HiLo Hero | Danger Mouse as HiLo Hero | Kool Moe Dee as HiLo Hero | Chuck D as HiLo Hero | Dizzee Rascal as HiLo Hero | RZA as HiLo Hero | Cee-Lo Green as HiLo Hero | Best Ever Clean Hip Hop
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KIRB YOUR ENTHUSIASM (2011 series on Jack Kirby panels): Douglas Rushkoff on THE ETERNALS | John Hilgart on BLACK MAGIC | Gary Panter on DEMON | Dan Nadel on OMAC | Deb Chachra on CAPTAIN AMERICA | Mark Frauenfelder on KAMANDI | Jason Grote on MACHINE MAN | Ben Greenman on SANDMAN | Annie Nocenti on THE X-MEN | Greg Rowland on THE FANTASTIC FOUR | Joshua Glenn on TALES TO ASTONISH | Lynn Peril on YOUNG LOVE | Jim Shepard on STRANGE TALES | David Smay on MISTER MIRACLE | Joe Alterio on BLACK PANTHER | Sean Howe on THOR | Mark Newgarden on JIMMY OLSEN | Dean Haspiel on DEVIL DINOSAUR | Matthew Specktor on THE AVENGERS | Terese Svoboda on TALES OF SUSPENSE | Matthew Wells on THE NEW GODS | Toni Schlesinger on REAL CLUE | Josh Kramer on THE FOREVER PEOPLE | Glen David Gold on JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY | Douglas Wolk on 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY | MORE EXEGETICAL COMMENTARIES: Joshua Glenn on Kirby’s Radium Age Sci-Fi Influences | Chris Lanier on Kirby vs. Kubrick | Scott Edelman recalls when the FF walked among us | Adam McGovern is haunted by a panel from THE NEW GODS | Matt Seneca studies the sensuality of Kirby’s women | Danny Fingeroth figgers out The Thing |
KIRK YOUR ENTHUSIASM (2012 series on Captain Kirk scenes): Justice or vengeance? by DAFNA PLEBAN | Kirk teaches his drill thrall to kiss by MARK KINGWELL | “KHAAAAAN!” by NICK ABADZIS | “No kill I” by STEPHEN BURT | Kirk browbeats NOMAD by GREG ROWLAND | Kirk’s eulogy for Spock by ZACK HANDLEN | The joke is on Kirk by PEGGY NELSON | Kirk vs. Decker by KEVIN CHURCH | Good Kirk vs. Evil Kirk by ENRIQUE RAMIREZ | Captain Camelot by ADAM MCGOVERN | Koon-ut-kal-if-fee by FLOURISH KLINK | Federation exceptionalism by DAVID SMAY | Wizard fight by AMANDA LAPERGOLA | A million things you can’t have by STEVE SCHNEIDER | Debating in a vacuum by JOSHUA GLENN | Klingon diplomacy by KELLY JEAN FITZSIMMONS | “We… the PEOPLE” by TRAV S.D. | Brinksmanship on the brink by MATTHEW BATTLES | Captain Smirk by ANNIE NOCENTI | Sisko meets Kirk by IAN W. HILL | Noninterference policy by GABBY NICASIO | Kirk’s countdown by PETER BEBERGAL | Kirk’s ghost by MATT GLASER | Watching Kirk vs. Gorn by JOE ALTERIO | How Spock wins by ANNALEE NEWITZ