40 sensational songs from the 1980s

Hip-hop

The first hip-hop song to reach the top 40 was “Rapper’s Delight” in 1979. The first to hit number one was “Ice Ice Baby,” in 1990. In between came the 1980s, the decade which saw hip-hop move from the undercard to the main event in pop music. Here are five songs that were most instrumental in – not just making hip-hop a popular genre – but in making it a crucial part of the culture writ large.

“The Message” by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five (1982)

“It’s like a jungle sometimes – It makes me wonder how I keep from going under.” With that simple hook, Duke Bootee and Melle Mel redefined rap music. It may not have been the first time rappers dealt with serious social issues, but it was the first time they scored a major hit doing so.

Grandmaster Flash has had his name attached to the song for decades, but the DJ had almost nothing to do with the actual track. Neither did the rest of the Furious Five, with the exception of Melle Mel. He and Duke Bootee wrote and performed the majority of it.

“I Can’t Live Without My Radio” by LL Cool J (1985)

It was the first song on LL Cool J’s first album. He was 17. It was produced by Rick Rubin – his label Def Jam’s first full-length album. He was 22. Two New York kids, one black, one white – kickstarting a revolution. And it turns out, Rubin was just getting started.

“Walk This Way” by Run-DMC and Aerosmith (1986)

Rubin had been working with Run-DMC even before he was with LL Cool J. In 1986, he decided it was time to show the world that hip hop music was, in fact, music. He didn’t just borrow the drum break from Aerosmith’s 1976 rock hit “Walk This Way.”

He got Steven Tyler and Joe Perry to come into the studio to sing and play on a new version that Joseph Simmons and Darryl McDaniels could rap over. The marriage of rap and rock was consummated. When the unlikely song made it all the way to number 4 on Billboard’s Hot 100, Aerosmith was reborn, and rap music no longer a niche genre.

“Bring the Noise” by Public Enemy (1988)

Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise” made its first major public appearance in the film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ Less Than Zero. The movie bothered people. Some loved it. Some thought it was a sign of the apocalypse. Which made Public Enemy’s song just perfect for it.

Public Enemy released it as a single from their 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Chuck D.’s lyrics were in-your-face and contemporary. They picked up the conversation that “The Message” had started and took it many miles down the road. It had an undeniable groove, comparable to the best rock & roll had to offer. It made you dance. It made you think.

“F**k the Police” by NWA (1988)

I once wrote an essay comparing NWA with the Marx Brothers – two groups of artists from marginalized communities that drew on nothing more than their incisive writing and performance skills to challenge and entertain polite society. Gangsta rap is reviled by many, and in the hands of derivative artists, it can be deplorable and crass.

Of course, that’s what many critics accused NWA of when Straight Outta Compton dropped in ’88. The most controversial of its tracks was the second from the extraordinary opening triptych of songs sketching out an exaggerated worldview – derived from “street knowledge.” It was a bombshell, both musically and lyrically, and it proved definitively that hip-hop music was not beholden to radio play for success. In the landscape that was emerging, that relationship was being reversed.

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