By the end of 1979 there were no less than a dozen rap recordings on the market. Records by artists such as The Sugar Hill Gang, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5, Spoonie Gee, The Sequence, The Winley Sisters and The Funky 4 + 1 were sonically based on the disco and funk beats that still dominated Black music. The subject matter of these records was born from the same spirit as disco band Chic’s hit "Good Times," the summer anthem of 1979. Just as Chic celebrated clams on the half shell, roller skates and a new mindset for a new decade; the practitioners of this new music genre celebrated the excesses of materialism- cars, women, money and even color televisions. Sexual prowess also played a huge part in the subject matter of this primarily male-dominated new form of urban expression. Braggadocio regarding one’s rap skills played a major part in every one of the first rap recordings.

At the end of 1979 Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5 released a record called "Superappin’" on Bobby Robinson’s Enjoy! Records. Clocking in at over 12 minutes, this opus showcased the Bronx crew who literally made 5 emcees sound like one, by splitting words between each other, sharing phrases, harmonizing, and crafting solo verses for each emcee. Tales of women, cars and rhyme skills filled the verses so masterfully crafted; but the last verse was totally different than the rest of the song. Melle Mel preached: “a child is born with no state of mind, blind to the ways of mankind, God is smilin’ on you but he’s frownin’ too because only God knows what you’ll go through”. The verse which literally prophesized the crack era and many other urban aspects of the upcoming decade would lay dormant as a great and largely unnoticed verse at the end of a great song that was drowned out by the gargantuan footprint of the Sugar Hill Gang’s "Rappers Delight."

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