Fashion Time!
"Not a Dapper Dan fan, I stay casual
To rock like the J it comes gradual"Brand Nubian "All For One"
"Still play the back in my thundergear down to my underwear
Make all you motherfuckers wonder where
I come from, 'cause motherfuck Dapper Dan
I'm a gun clappa fan plus I run rappers stand"
- Strang Wondah "Leflaur Leflah Eshkoshka"
"There was a brother uptown makin his own spot
Makin Gucci, leather and suede tailor made
That had more flavor than mom's Kool-Aid
I'm gonna tell you, the name of this man
He goes by the name of the Dapper Dan"
- Biz Markie "Throw Back"
I guess that I don't need ot do a "who's Dapper Dan" intro since Biz sums it all up pretty well in that rap.To be clear Dapper Dan was a guy who owned a high end custom cloting shop in Harlem. He basically set hip hop fashion around 1990. You've seen his work all over the place in the old school. Check it out...
You get the idea.
The thing is that Dapper Dan technically sampled brands, and I don't mean he tried them, I mean he straight jacked their logos and used them however he wanted. He put a Nike logo on a jacket, made some money, and gave Nike nothing. That's pure hip hop.
 |
| Ya got took, Nike. |
IN CONCLUSION: I don't know what this post was about. I just like the line from OGC. These clothes look werid. Word. Plus, the B-Side of that Salt-N-Pepa album is a song called "Spinderella's Not A Fella" what in the HELL is that about? Were there questions? Was there doubt? I guess we'll save that for another post.
DAPPER DAN TRENDSETTER SCORE 10/10
It goes without saying that MTV is a joke and THE WORST and nobody likes it except for a few teenage shut-ins. They should really just drop the "M" right? That's what people say, "they don't even play music SMH." Well I say they should drop the M and the TV and then off the planet. Anyway, they're a bunch of toady posers that put on a bunch of shows about really dumb high school pranks and being pregnant as a teenager. So they got their LOLz and OMGs covered, right? WHO CARES? NOBODY AT ALL.
Okay, so long ago they had a show about rap music and it was okay. Really? Yep. But if anyone ever tells you that their show was "great" or "awesome", they've either been blinded by nostalgia, or they've got bad taste, because it wasn't that good. Ed Lover and Dre were good....and sometimes the videos were good, but not usually. It was all hit or miss. Anyway when the show got cancelled they had a freestyle farewell and it was ten minutes long and a lot of big names spit: Rakim, KRS-One, Erick Sermon, Chubb Rock, MC Serch, Redman, Method Man, Large Professor, Special Ed, and Craig Mack. Wow! Plus DJ Scribble was on the turntables. AND Flava Flav got placed. There is nothing better than hearing a lineup like that, no matter where it's coming from.
But why am I posting this? Well, this is from 1995, shortly after "Tical" dropped. Please notice how Method Man dominates his peers and superiors .This is the Method Man we were dealing with back then. He destroys some of the biggest names in rap...in a freestyle...with Rakim and KRS One. That's incredible. Great to watch, plus Erick Sermon killing it! Redman! This is just a good video: check it out.
Oh, 1995 Method Man, please come back to us. We miss you.
As a bonus I'm also throwing up an old ODB freestyle, also from MTV. Needless to say, it's a classic. O killing it. Look at how different this is from everything else ever. RIP to the grandmaster...MUCH RESPECT:
How about a little more Meth? Sure.
I can't stop. How about the Wu spitting over one of the best beats in history:
Living in Philly freestyles like this would come up from time to time on the radio or on street mixtapes. Honestly, it was Wu-Tang at their best. My all time favorite ODB verse was one he did for some radio station in New York (Hot 97 I guess) and somehow it made it on a mixtape I bought off the street in Philly, that shit never made it to any of his albums but it was dope. It was the best. Anyway, that shit doesn't happen anymore, Method Man is making candy commercials.
MTV Score 0/10
MTV Raps Freestyle Score 7/10
ODB Freestyle Score 10/10
Method Man Freestyle #1 Score 10/10
Wu-Tang Freestyle Score 10/10
Thanks to Village Voice for the idea of blogging about some of these vidoes!
