Listen to and watch the legendary Kool DJ Red Alert break down the beginnings of one of the greatest diss tracks and also one of the greatest Hip Hop tracks of all time, it really is mind boggling that it has been 30 years!!!
The History:
I remember having a dubbed cassette of the truly classic and legendary debut Boogie Down Productions album Criminal Minded album and I saved up my milk and paper run money up for the LP (and eventually the CD) and this was honestly an album that got played to death in my Walkman and on my stereo (and my Dad's ones as well)...
KRS was a very staunch believer that Hip Hop started out in the Bronx (a known fact to all true Hip Hop heads) and was not amused with MC Shan's "The Bridge" (1986) claiming that Queens was the place to be.
BDP recorded "South Bronx" (1986) breaking down South Bronx Hip Hop history and telling the World that he didn't "hear a peep from a place called Queens" Shan responded with "Kill That Noise" (1987) where Marley tells Shan did that he didn't hear him say that Hip Hop started in"The Bridge" on his record and with Shan responding "I didn't, they wanted to get on the bandwagon".
In turn BDP recorded "The Bridge Is Over" (ironically at Power Play Studios in Queens) and went straight for the jugulars of MC Shan (even dissing his Puma footwear), Roxanne Shante & The Juice Crew, Queens Producer/Remixer extraordinaire Marley Marl and the late, great DJ Mr Magic who dissed "Success Is The Word" (1985) that was performed by KRS One and the late, great DJ Scott La Rock's first group 12:41
The record was first released on March 3rd, 1987 on B-Boy Records and the rest is cemented firmly in Hip Hop history for ever.
Roxanne Shante responded with "Have A Nice Day" and told KRS that his name sounded "like a wack radio station" and that DJ Scott La Rock should be ashamed for biting T-La Rock's name and referring to BDP as "Broken Down Punks".
Others got involved too like Queensbridge roughneck, Blaq Poet (Screwball) who at one stage had BDP member and Bronx Hip Hop legend Just Ice looking for him with a shotgun and MC Butchy B and a couple of others...all of this broken down in this very insightful article
I wasn't buying the recent beef between KRS and Shan, it just seems played out to me but KRS and Marley are on speaking terms and actually recorded an album in 2007 which had some dope tracks and even featured Blaq Poet.
Diss records are not really the same today, you either get wack artists dissing other wack artists with weak disses that supposedly "bodied" the other rapper and are just corny or forgettable.
However it's always great to see actual Rappers in the culture for the art-form harshly strip down the awful and literally fake and plastic "artists" that pollute the industry today and their only response is to mention low record sales.
Fresh for 2017 You Suckers!!!
