I remember a certain discourse I had I with some friends about Hip-hop. We talked about its Golden Age, and all agreed that it was beyond doubt, Hip-hop’s most influential chapter.
And then they asked me who I thought was the era’s most influential rapper. I could only think of three words: Big Daddy Kane—and as a little disclaimer, although I don’t think my explanations cannot fully express the justice he deserves, I will try my best.
Like most artists, Antonio Hardy began in Hip-hop underground. His humble beginnings, however, didn’t seem much arduous a task as many fans came to admire his uncanny “ability to syncopate over faster hip-hop beats”—despite having asthma. In fact, many artists would most likely consider him Hip-hop’s most skilled pioneer of machine-gun rhymes and non-stop rap.
The underground simply couldn’t contain his notoriety, and his first two albums became break-out hits during its time, and are now highly-acclaimed Hip-hop classics. His debuting Long Live the Kane, ranked at #6 in Ego Trip’s best albums of 1989, and managed a title in The Source’s 100 Best Rap Albums. It’s a Big Daddy Thing, which released a year after, also reached a spot in The Source 100, one in R&B top 40, and is considered Kane’s best-selling record.
In no order whatsoever, Kane’s single “Ain’t No Half-Steppin” attained #25 on The Rolling Stone’s 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time, which also earned him the acclamation: “master wordsmith of rap’s late-golden ageand a huge influence on a generation of MCs… Legend has it that even the 80’s greatest rapper Rakim, turned him down to go mic-to-mic with Kane”.
MTV placed him at #7 in their Greatest MCs Of All Time, #8 on The Source’s Top 50 Lyricists of All Time, and #4 on There’s A God On The Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs, a book authored by Kool Moe Dee, who also added him as “one of the true greatest emcees ever”.
Like I said, I speak in limitations in doing Big Daddy Kane justice—I guess you’ll have to listen to him and do research yourself. But I’m sure we’ll both agree to this, today celebrates the birth of a well-deserved Hip-hop legend.
By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com
