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When punk met hip hop 🤝

The Clash and Kurtis Blow at the Akron Civic Theater, August 17, 1982

Diana Bloomfield

Today in Hip Hop History:

Anthony L. Ray, aka Sir Mix-A-Lot (August 12, 1963), a pioneering Pacific Northwest rapper and producer, was born in Seattle. He had an ear and a passion for music. Soon after high school, he began DJing parties at local community centers.

When the song “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugar Hill Gang was released, it brought rap music to the world outside New York City for the first time. In Seattle, the first performers to become known for doing hip-hop were a group called the Emerald Street Boys, who were both rappers and breakdancers in the early 1980s. The Emerald Street Boys inspired him, and he soon began making his music using drum machines and synthesizers he had learned to play himself.

He had begun playing weekends at the Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club. He moved locations and started throwing his parties at the Rotary Boys and Girls Club. He met ‘Nasty’ Nes Rodriguez, a local radio DJ and host of Fresh Tracks, the West Coast’s first rap radio show on Seattle station KKFX (KFOX).

Rodriguez invited him onto his show to air his music, and he became the station’s most-requested artist. The duo teamed up to start NastyMix Records and released their first hit single “Posse on Broadway.” He followed up with the release of his debut album Swass, which would sell over a million copies and be certified platinum.

He released his second album, Seminar. He signed with Def American Records. He is known for the single “Baby Got Back” from the album Mack Daddy. The controversy helped make the song more popular. “Baby Got Back” sold over two million copies, was the #1 song on the pop chart for five weeks, and won a Grammy Award for Best Solo Rap Performance.

Today in Hip Hop History:

Nancy Spungen and Sid Vicious pose in their apartment in Pindock Mews, London, on August 14, 1978.

It was likely a party to celebrate their impending departure from England.

Photo by Watal Asanuma