Share some of your favorite hip hop memories and stories

I was first introduced to rap music in 1979. At the time I was just entering my teen years. There was this new thing called rap coming out of New York. Since I didn't live in New York, I didn't know what Rap was at that time. At that time someone had explained to me that rap was people talking and rhyming over music. At that time someone also told me that it was coming out of New York and that people were saying that it wouldn't last because it was only a fad. I think a few weeks later I first heard the song Rappers Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang for the first time on the radio. This was the first time I or people in my hometown had heard Rap music. The song got a lot of airplay in my hometown. Rappers delight became a big hit. All of us kids in my neighborhood learn and knew all the lyrics of the song. At this time there was only one rap song by one rap group in existence in my hometown in 1979. Later that same year there was the second rap song we ever heard release. That song was called Funk You Up by a female rap group called The Sequence. This song also got a lot of air play where we lived. We learned and knew all the lyrics to this song. The song was also a hit. At this time there were only two rap songs that existed in my world in 1979. It was so new, that rap music wasn't even big enough to be called it's own genre of music. Two songs don't make it a genre.

During this era rap singles were released on 12 inch records. Back in those days vinyl records were 45rpm which were singles and 33rpm which were albums. 12 inch singles were something entirely different and was unique to early rap singles. 12 inch vinyl records were the size of 33's/albums, but rotated at the speed of 45's singles. You basically had an album size single played at the 45rpm speed. An album size single with one song on side A and one song on side B. At this time the 12 inch record was unique to rap music.

In my hometown in 1979 I had not yet heard the term Hip Hop. I only knew the term hip hop only as a phrase or a hook repeated in the song Rappers Delight. Nothing more than a hook in the song. So, in my hometown at that time it was called rap music. It would be a few years later before I started to hear the term hip hop or hip hop culture. This is how I remember it in my hometown in 1979. I have many more hip hop stories and memories that followed from 1979 all the way into 1990s. I do plan on sharing more of my hip hop stories and memories. Hip Hop fans of different generations and different cities will have their own individual hip hop stories and memories. Please feel free to share your stories. The music, the fashion, the language, break dancing, DJs, mixing, videos, rapping, movies, television, etc.