I was told that our musical tastes really begin in middle school. That is when we discover music outside of what is normally played around us. We seek out the music that connects and moves us. I would catch all the music on the radio and in the neighborhood. My Mom listened to the music she liked, and I was fond of them as well, but it wasn’t hitting me like UTFO or Prince. My tastes ranged from Pop/Top 40 through R&B, classical music (thank cartoons), classic rock, Motown, and “the music that wouldn’t last a few more years,” Hip Hop.
With my introduction of music videos before 1986 with “Friday Night Videos on NBC and cable TV (Super TV before Comcast), I was exposed to a whole new world and also being able to see what the artists imagined in their music. For Young Kofi, cable and Friday Night Videos changed everything when it came to music. Being able to see the visuals to the music you heard on the radio was amazing. Giving credit where it’s due, Michael Jackson MADE music videos an art form. It feels like there was before MJ and after MJ when it came to videos. You saw how people would begin to take it seriously and beyond just making a static production. Everyone had a good to great video for their music, all the boats raised the water.
1986 is the year I fell in love with Hip Hop. I was a casual fan and was still a “casual fan” up until ‘88-89 with Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, NWA, and others. People ask, “Where were you when you first heard Criminal Minded?” For me, it was “When I first heard Peter Piper?” They both came out in 86, but I clearly remember hearing Peter Piper first and how sonically it blew me away. The opening, with Rev Run and DMC rhyming and the beat dropping… Listen, that might as well be me seeing the Ark of the Hip Hop Covenant. Of course the same year that LL Cool J, Salt “N Pepa, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B. and Rakim, DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, Beastie Boys, Stetsasonic, among others dropping would make anyone become a fan. “Raising Hell” was the first Hip Hop I remember asking to borrow, I didn’t get it, but it was in rotation constantly with friends.