The pioneers of rap



In the process of recycling the many, many magazines in my home, I've come across some press on the Beastie Boys, which I'm scanning and posting to my Flickr account. Yesterday, while paging through the April/May 2006 issue of Giant magazine -- which I purchased to read its article on Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! -- I discovered that I had overlooked a very interesting article about the pioneers of rap and Chung King Studios.

The article is a nostalgic look at the work of Run-DMC, LL Cool J, and the Beastie Boys from 1985 to 1987, with commentary from and information on the people who contributed to making these artists the rap pioneers they are considered to be today. Among the people featured in the article are Rick Rubin and John King (producers of Licensed to Ill), Steve Ettinger (engineer on Licensed to Ill), and Russell Simmons (Beastie Boys' former manager).

For me, the most interesting information in the article is photographer Sunny Bak's comments. It's unusual to find press in which she is interviewed about the Beastie Boys. (Bak is still hanging out with and photographing them today. I saw her last at the Beastie Boys concert in Santa Barbara in August.)

Today you won't read anything more interesting than this article.

The Originals - page 1 The Originals - page 2 The Originals - page 3

The Originals - page 4 The Originals - page 5 The Originals - page 6

(Note: At Flickr, please choose the "All Sizes" link to read the article at a legible size. Giant magazine uses a ridiculously small point size. I enlarged the print with my scans.)

8 comments:

7:48 PM Anonymous said...

I enjoyed reading about that era. Thanks for posting the article. It was the most interesting thing I read today.

8:54 PM Anonymous said...

Awesome article!

9:02 PM Anonymous said...

Thank you, the article was educational.

I haven't seen Krush Groove. Is it worth seeing?

9:27 PM Hot Sauce said...

Hmmm...what is the correct answer? It's a movie based on Russell Simmons' life. It was made in the 80s. I think that pretty much says it all. :D

The music performances are worth seeing.

10:36 PM Anonymous said...

Love it. Thank you! I gotta say -- if you rent Krush Groove, make a festival of it and get Breakin'. Remember that?! 80's paradigm of the cheesey street-meets-girl cross-cultural dance flick. Plenty o leg warmers.

10:05 AM Anonymous said...

Good reading!

12:18 PM Anonymous said...

Old school info! I didn't know the FFYR video was shot in a friend's apartment. I thought it was a set.

11:18 AM Anonymous said...

That was the best thing I have read in a long time! Thanks for posting it.

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