MC Ren has long been one of my favorite emcees, and stays near the top of my All-Underrated list. He was good on most of the things I’ve heard, but he had one verse that just crushed everything I’d heard from him: his verse on CPO’s Ballad of a Menace. The funny thing about it is, the thing I remember most about this verse is when I was watching the video and my mom came by talmbout, “Talkin’ about how bad he is…bad-lookin’, that’s about it!
This is the ballad of a menace
Ren will finish and diminish
All the suckers that thought they could flow like me that was in this
Society wishes for my death or my downfall
But they playin theyself as if they playin some roundball
Cuz I’m terrorizing the territory I’m steppin’ on
Endangerin’ citizens when I’m keepin my weapon on
I hit like a psycho cuz to me it was pitiful
I just got word the Ruthless Villain was critical
Let’s get it straight: the ones that want some can come with that
Illiterate motherfuckers, I’ll make you look dumb with that
Stumble and fumble cuz I’ma crush til you crumble
So you can stutter and stutter but keep it down to a mumble
MC Ren is never taken as a sucker
In other words, I’m a bad motherfucker!
So next time I walk your street you should know
To lock your door and close your windows
And if you was thinkin that protection could stop me
It takes a continent fulla niggas to drop me
And for me to be vicious, yo, it’s valid
While I’m producing and conductin the ballad of a motha-fuckin menace!
October 25th, 2008 at 2:04 am
Would “The Big Payback” be considered the genesis of hip hop? I just heard it on Music Choice, and I thought of this thread.
October 25th, 2008 at 7:35 am
i guess it kinda depends on how you mean the question. specifically, i don’t know that the payback was one of the songs that the godfathers (herc, flash, and bam) ran into the dirt at the inception of the genre, with the exception of the fact that it’s a dope breakbeat. in that respect, the payback may be as much a progenitor of hip-hop as any other record with a dope break beat, but really moreso. if, on the other hand, you’re talking about james’ vocal performance, i’d say no. by the time the emcees actually started recording, i don’t think any of them set out to make a payback-sounding record. it’s true that james was doing some proto-rapping on the payback (what’s even hotter is that that whole song was done in one take), but it’s not directly responsible for the development of hip-hop as a genre any more than pigmeat markham’s proto-rapping.
i do definitely think that as the form advanced, the payback, mostly because of the track, became important in hip-hop’s development. it’s one of the most sampled songs out there.
October 25th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
James Brown begat Pfunk, and Pfunk begat maybe 40 percent of hip hop. Ask any of the first gen hip hoppers, and 100 percent of themcredit James Brown among their influences.
I would also point out that (unfortunately) west coast rap evolved as gangster rap. I make the case that the Godfather of Soul image played right into black gangsterism, the “origin” of so much west coast rap, the same way the Godfather played into white gangsterism.
October 25th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
oh, i mean if you wanna get mathematical about it, between james and p-funk, you can probably account for about 60-75% of hip-hop production in the 88-96 era. i wasn’t exactly sure about the specific nature of the question, but no doubt james and his progeny are at or near the sonic center of hip-hop. all day, every day.
i’m intrigued by the question of the godfather of soul image. i hadn’t actually thought of it, actually. i might not be giving the rappers enough credit, but i’m thinking that they generally took their image from influences more local to them. kinda like, when i talk about the saggy-britches, people who are older and have a more of a sense of history trace the origins to jail culture, while i can tell you of a certainty that i and the dudes i hung with sagged because it was cool and eventually comfortable. the jail angle might not be wrong, but ain’t really have nothin to do with why we did it.