New Releases Give Rap Music History Lesson

Rap music fans thrive on change, so don’t expect to hear any rap oldies on rap strongholds like KDAY-AM (1580) in Los Angeles, much less on pop stations that resist even the new rap releases.

How, then, can a newcomer to rap get an historical overview of the invigorating street sound?

“Hip Hop Heritage, Volume 1” is a starting place.

The nine-track, 61-minute compact disc from Jive Records begins appropriately enough with the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” the first rap single ever to break into the Top 10 of the national pop charts.

As Chuck Eddy points out in his review of the “Heritage” album in the Feb. 22 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, the good-natured “Rapper’s Delight” was largely dismissed in 1979 as a “silly bubblegum” novelty, but it now sounds like a “silly avant-garde masterpiece.” The Jive album also includes such early rap standouts as Mean Machine’s Latin-accented “Disco Dreams” from 1981 and Fearless Four’s “Rockin’ It” from 1982.

However, the most valuable look at the evolution of rap is offered in “Rapmasters,” a 10-volume series available from Priority Records.

The budget series (each volume sells for about $10) contains 92 tracks, ranging from “Rapper’s Delight” through such other landmarks as Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message” and Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock” on to Run-DMC’s “Rock Box” and N.W.A’s “Gangsta Gangsta.”

Because the volumes are loosely organized by theme rather than chronology, you can’t follow the history of the music by going from Vol. 1 to Vol. 10, and there are some crucial groups missing (including Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions). Still, “Rapmasters” is an invaluable guide to what was perhaps at once the most vital and most misunderstood street sound of the ‘80s.

For a more contemporary look at rap, “Monster MTV Rap Hits” is a 17-song collection put together by Tommy Boy Records in association with KDAY. The tracks range from De La Soul’s “Me Myself and I” and M. C. Hammer’s “Pump It Up (Here’s the News)” to Boogie Down Productions’ “Stop the Violence.”

THE DISCO COLLECTION: Where Priority’s “Rapmasters” series salutes one of the most successful pop styles of the ‘80s, a second Priority series, “Mega Hits Dance Classics,” toasts one of the hottest pop styles of the ‘70s.

Some of the titles in the six volumes will probably give many pop fans nightmares of the time when disco had a discouraging stranglehold on pop radio, but other selections serve as reminders of the occasional terrific disco record.

The lineup ranges from Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” (found on Vol. 3) and Alicia Bridges’ “I Love the Nightlife” (Vol. 1) as well as the Three Degrees’ “When Will I See You Again” and the Trammps’ “Hold Back the Night” (both Vol. 2). Vol. 7 in the series is due next week and will feature Rick James’ “Super Freak,” Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration” and Laid Back’s “White Horse.”