Rap Hall of Fame (1979-2010)

Happy new year of the Snake to you all!

As this is my first post of both the Western new year and the Chinese new year calendar let's do it correctly! Since the whole purpose of this blog is to represent how important hip hop has been, and continues to be, for me I wanted to share something awesome!

It gives me great pleasure to share this video from Jimmy Fallon's Late Night TV talk show. You may have seen it, but it's still worth rewinding!

Featuring "The Roots" backing band, led by ?uestionlove, Jummy Fallon and Justin Timberlake tear isht up! The performance comes in three parts - check the full tracklisting below. But, Part 1 has become hard to find after NBC Universal deleted them (for copyright issues, by all acounts.) After searching high and low I found it again...here is Part 1 rightfully reunited along with Parts 2 and 3 below!

Sugarhill Gang's 1979 anthem, "Rapper's Delight," was the obvious choice to kick off Part 1, and ending on Alicia Keys and Jay-Z's "New York State of Mind" certainly got the audience on its feet!


The History of Rap from kidpop on Vimeo.

Part 2  begins with Kurtis Blow's 1980s rap classic, "The Breaks," and bows out with the metal-inspired, "King of Rock," by Run DMC from 1985. And in between this '80s medley were plenty of jams from the '90s and '00s . Check it out here!



Read more about Jimmy Fallon in this 2010 New York magazine interview.


Here's a priceless track-listing for this "History of Rap" series. And the audio streams for those of you who are interested.

History of Rap, Part 1



Sugarhill Gang - "Rapper's Delight"
Run-DMC - "Peter Piper"
Beastie Boys - "Paul Revere"
A Tribe Called Quest - "Award Tour"
Digital Underground - "The Humpty Dance"
Snoop Dogg feat. Dr. Dre - "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang"
Tupac Shakur - "California Love"
The Notorious B.I.G. - "Juicy"
The Roots - "The Seed"
Eminem - "My Name Is"
Missy Elliott - "Work It"
Soulja Boy Tell 'Em - "Crank That (Soulja Boy)"
T.I. feat. Rihanna - "Live Your Life"
Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx - "Gold Digger"
Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys - "Empire State of Mind"

History of Rap, Part 2



Kurtis Blow - "The Breaks"
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - "The Message"
N.W.A - "Express Yourself"
Public Enemy - "Bring the Noise"
Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock - "It Takes Two"
Salt-N-Pepa - "Push It"
Vanilla Ice - "Ice Ice Baby"
Fatman Scoop - "Put Your Hands Up"
Cypress Hill - "Insane in the Brain"
DJ Kool - "Let Me Clear My Throat"
DMX - "Party Up in Here"
Nelly - "Hot in Herre"
50 Cent - "In Da Club"
OutKast - "Hey Ya"
Lil Wayne - "A Milli"
DJ Khaled - "All I Do Is Win"
Cali Swag District - "Teach Me How to Dougie"
Rick Ross - "B.M.F."
Biz Markie - "Just a Friend"
Kurtis Blow - "The Breaks"

History of Rap, Part 3



Run-DMC - "King of Rock"
LL Cool J - "Mama Said Knock You Out"
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - "Parents Just Don't Understand"
De La Soul - "Me, Myself and I"
JJ Fad - "Supersonic"
Sir Mix-a-Lot - "Baby Got Back"
Young MC - "Bust a Move"
House of Pain - "Jump Around"
Ice Cube - "It Was a Good Day"
Coolio - "Gangsta's Paradise"
The Fugees - "Killing Me Softly"
Beastie Boys - "Sabotage"
Jay-Z - "I Just Wanna Love You (Give It 2 Me)"
OutKast - "Ms. Jackson"
Snoop Dogg - "Drop It Like It's Hot"
Kanye West - "Stronger"
Nicki Minaj -"Super Bass"
Naughty By Nature - "Hip Hop Hooray"