Tenth in a series of posts analyzing and celebrating old-school hip hop.
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AFRIKA BAMBAATAA & THE JAZZY 5 | “JAZZY SENSATION (BRONX VERSION)” | 1981
Hip hop, like America its birthplace, and New York City its womb, is an e pluribus unum, many things that become one thing, a new thing which is all of them and none. Musically, hip hop comes from funk and jazz and soul and reggae as well as disco, rock, poetry, and pop. Thematically, hip hop is equal parts street violence, activist conscience, and block party. Genealogically, hip hop comes from that great satellite of Africa, the American South, and the Caribbean known as the South Bronx. And structurally, hip hop is the four new cultural forms identified by Afrika Bambaataa — emceeing, deejaying, breaking, and graffiti — plus the cultural soup and emerging self-consciousness that fosters and interconnects all four.
My favorite hip hop, especially before artists like Rakim and Nas figured out how to turn emcees into auteurs, pays tribute to this interplay between individual and group expression. “Jazzy Sensation (Bronx Version)” is my favorite example, and naturally, it’s not just because of Bambaataa. A dream team of three DJs are credited (and named) on the track: Bambaataa, DJ Red Alert (who went on to have an enormously important NYC radio show), and Jazzy Jay (instrumental in the formation of Def Jam records). The five emcees (Master Ice, Master Bee, Master Dee, AJ Les, and Mister Freeze), all of them from the Bronx’s Soundview housing projects (has there ever been a better name for the home of a hip hop group?) only recorded this one track together, but they fall in together flawlessly, harmonizing like a doo-wop group. It’s an embarrassment of riches in a genre driven by scarcity. There’s a reason why, when The Beastie Boys wanted to summarize and synthesize NYC hip hop in Paul’s Boutique, “Jazzy Sensation” (along with The Funky 4 + 1′s “That’s The Joint”) were their first stops.
The first call is unified, and directed to the crowd — the now utterly familiar ALL THE LADIES IN THE HOUSE, THE LADIES, THE LADIES — but before long the emcees are in the pocket together, moving from calling to the crowd to calling to each other like, well, jazz musicians. Most early hip hop singles lean heavily on end rhyme — think Kurtis Blow’s “The Breaks” — but “Jazzy Sensation” is packed with doubled and internal rhymes that give hints of what’s to come. Formally, it’s surprisingly sophisticated, with handoffs and choruses blending into call-and-response echoes. After seven or eight of these echoes, all five emcees lock in together in a sing-song, schoolyard melody:
We go by the names down in the Hall of Fame
No other guy or dame could ever play the game
We’re the flyest, the flyest, known to be the highest
’Cause we’re at the top and we can’t be stopped
We’re the sweetest, the neatest, the latest, the greatest
The best emcees to ever arrive
It’s silly and childish, but it’s also the apotheosis of the communal spirit of hip hop: you could call it utopian if it weren’t so human. The Jazzy 5 call themselves “the once divided, reunited,” and in that moment, you want to believe them. And at this time, in this place, it’s entirely appropriate that Afrika Bambaataa, the man who assembles the group and puts the party together, unifying the many into one, is the man with his name on the record.
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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