Sugarhill Gang
Members Wonder Mike (Mike Wright) Big Bank Hank (Henry Jackson) Master Gee (Guy O’Brien) Kory O The story of the Sugarhill Gang is perhaps one of the most controversial among old school hip hop and hip hop on a whole for that matter. A woman named Sylvia Robinson, who herself was involved in the music industry, heard this new underground sound called rap and felt that there was market there for the taking. She began to put...
Run DMC
Members Run (Joseph Simmons) b. 11/15/64 DMC (Darryl McDaniels) b. 5/31/64 Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizell) b. 1/21/65 d. 10/30/02 “Two years ago a friend of mine asked me to say some emcee rhymes So I said this rhyme I’m about to say, the rhyme was def and it went this way: Took a test to become an emcee, and Orange Krush became amazed at me So Larry put me inside his Cadillac, the chauffeur drove off and we never came back...
Sparky D
Sparky, born Doreen Broadnax, grew up in the Van Dyke Houses Projects in Brownsville, Brooklyn, NYC. Sparky first recorded with Brooklyn crew The Playgirls who were on Sutra records. In 1984, Sparky appeared in a cameo on her boyfriend Spyder D’s “Placin the Beat” on Profile. Her first solo effort was “Sparky’s Turn (Roxanne You’re Through)” on NIA records produced Spyder D. This was one of...
Spoonie Gee
Spoonie Gee, born Gabriel Jackson, had something a lot of other old school hip hoppers didn’t have- an uncle in the music industry. Bobby Robinson was already an accomplished producer when he decided to sign Spoonie to Enjoy! Records. Although Spoonie originally wanted to be an R&B singer, he knew he didn’t have the voice for it. So he took to rapping instead. His uncle helped him get his first recording...
The Real Roxanne
Like so many other female rappers in 1984-85, Adelaida/Joanne? Martinez adopted the name Roxanne and set about to answer UTFO’s smash single “Roxanne, Roxanne.” The Real Roxanne as she was known is usually considered near the top of that very crowded group of women. Her main competition came, of course, from Roxanne Shante. She made a record called “Romeo” on Select in 85 which was an inversion of...
