February 14, 1981 – Valentine’s Day 1981. Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry was performing as host and musical visitor for an episode Saturday Evening Stay. However this was no odd episode.
Harry was allowed to decide on anybody she wished to seem on stage together with her. Her choose? Bronx-bred Hip Hop group The Funky four + 1.
The “1” represented MC Sha-Rock, Hip Hop’s first girl, whereas the “four” symbolized the opposite unique members the group: Keith Keith, Ok.Ok. Rockwell, Lil’ Rodney C and Jazzy Jeff (no, not Will Smith’s DJ Jazzy Jeff).
Their efficiency marked the primary time a Hip Hop group had appeared on nationwide tv. In a 2014 interview with Wax Poetics, Blondie guitarist Chris Stein regarded again on the momentous event.
“The individuals on the present had been so nervous about them doing it,” he recalled. “I keep in mind making an attempt to clarify to them how scratching labored. Attempting to verbalize what that’s for somebody who has no thought, it’s actually tough.”
As they took the stage, the Funky four + 1 was launched as Bronx “road rappers.” Sha-Rock was pregnant on the time and rocked a outsized pink sweater to cover her child bump.
“Once you see the SNL Blondie clip, I used to be pregnant then,” she instructed me in 2016. “I used to be feeling nauseous and sick. I used to be like, ‘Oh god what I’ve I gotten myself into?’ It was a studying expertise. I used to be 19-years-old and the blokes had been type upset as a result of we had been like on the peak going worldwide.
“It was a slap of their face for me to get pregnant. It made it laborious to journey and do stuff as a result of I used to be pregnant.”
However, as they are saying, the present should go on. The group carried out their large hit “That’s The Joint,” which has been sampled by quite a few notable Hip Hop artists equivalent to Beastie Boys, EPMD and De La Soul.
Funky four + 1 undoubtedly laid the groundwork for Hip Hop to take form. They had been the primary rap act to get a document deal, too. Sha Rock by no means realized on the time how integral they had been to the tradition.
“We had been simply doing what we wished to do for the love Hip Hop,” she mentioned. “We had been like ghetto-fabulous again then. We had been additionally like stars in our personal neighborhood. For us, it wasn’t in regards to the cash, it was for the accolades. Everytime you out on the street, they’d be like, ‘That’s Sha Rock. When’s your subsequent present? You’re the baddest feminine.’
“It was so loopy since you had females coming to see the blokes and the women and men coming to see me rhyme, as nicely. We had the love town New York as a result of we had been holding it down. We had been giving them what they got here for — superior rhyme styling, nice supply, model — together with reveals. We used to decorate up and do reveals to mesmerize individuals. There was no restrict to how lengthy you can rhyme again then both. We made the longest recorded rap tune in Hip Hop historical past till different individuals was making an attempt to beat the document.”
Revisit the unique combine under.