Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

  Am I eternal or eternalist? Rakim's rhetorical reflection from 1988's Follow The Leader finds the God MC pondering his place in hip-hop history. While Ra's legacy is solidified, rap's historical highlight reel moves at the speed of light, omitting major players of the game. Jalil Hutchins is one of those major players. Many don't know the name but they know at least one of the classics that sprang from  his mighty pen and fertile mind that are part of the Great American Rap and Black Music Songbook.  To put things in perspective; to all the outsiders reading this essay---think Gershwin and Berlin. For those in the know--- think Sly Stone. Smokey Robinson. Gamble and Huff.  Many emcees had hot lines. Jalil had hot songs: " Friends". "One Love". "Freaks Come Out At Night". "Five Minutes of Funk". These songs inspired two decades of R&B and hip-hop samples,  remakes, and interpolations.  Go to whosampled.com  and sip from J...

"You know what you need to learn/old school artists don't always burn/you're just another rapper who's had his turn" I'm Still #1 ---Boogie Down Productions (1988) In just four bars, BDP lead rapper KRS-One delivered a dead-on dissertation of rap music's stylistic changeover and constant turnover of its ever-evolving cast of characters. Early deejays and emcees were supplanted by seminal figures who delivered rap's first recorded hits. It happened again when Run-D.M.C---Joey "Run" Simmons, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels and deejay Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell emerged in '83 with game-changing two-sided single "It's Like That /Sucker MC's". The record's big-beat sound abruptly ended the party-rocking Sugar Hill/Enjoy style. Now the legendary group was on the ropes as rap's Golden Age was approaching.  Part of the seminal class of '84 along with Whodini and the Fat Boys...

                                                                                             " All I hear is platinum that, platinum this/platinum whips, nobody got no platinum hits"                                                                                        ---Mase                                                                         ...