Winley Records - Hip Hop

Hip Hop

Winley Records resurfaced in the 1970s with a series of releases which—like the street corner practices of doo-wop foreshadowing those of hip hop (see Toop: Ch. 2)—would in their different ways presage the advent of commercially recorded hip hop even as that movement blossomed in the Bronx and spread to the streets of Harlem. Winley released a series of speeches by Malcolm X, tied into a tradition of black oratory and to be sampled a decade later by Public Enemy and others. The label also recorded Harlem Underground Band (featuring a young George Benson), whose "Smokin' Cheeba Cheeba" (1976), from the album "Harlem Underground" would furnish a break for hip hop's burgeoning breakbeat culture. A "break" was a short percussive passage in a record which hip hop DJs would loop (using two copies, one for each turntable) in order for it to be rapped over and/or danced to. By the late 1970s, "b-boy" sections were appearing in some small New York record stores, catering to "b-boys", followers of this yet-to-be-named new subculture, who would buy 45s, 12"s or complete albums, old or new, of funk, rock or indeed any genre, as long as they were satisfied that each contained at least a few seconds worthy of being looped. (Toop: ix–x) Paul Winley's daughter Tanya was such a follower, a "rap fanatic" (Toop: 100); Paul began collecting songs containing popular breaks and compiling them on a series of records called Super Disco Brake's, beginning in 1979 and eventually running to six volumes. The first of these therefore was one of the earliest records released with hip hop culture in mind, and probably the first breakbeat record in history. (Shapiro: 384–385)

Harlem Underground Band, augmented with the organ of the seemingly ever-present "Baby" Cortez, would function as the house band backing Winley's hip hop releases, hence having the same function, if not influence, as "Jiggs" Chase's band at Sugar Hill Records, or those of Pumpkin at Enjoy Records and elsewhere, i.e. solving the problem of how to translate the backing to raps heretofore provided live by DJs. In the case of the first of these Winley releases, "Rhymin' and Rappin'" by Tanya and Paulette Winley (1979), the backing was "straightforward r&b, without the percussive explosions that were hip-hop's raison d'etre" while the rapping was somewhat tentative. (Shapiro: 384) Tanya "Sweet Tee" Winley's "Vicious Rap" (1980) was a leap forward, with Tanya in confident flow and the band even replicating a break at points. Tanya Winley raps in the party spirit characteristic of early hip hop, but the lyrics nonetheless detail a case of false arrest, and prophecy that she will "scream and shout ... and tell the government what it's all about". Along with Kurtis Blow's punning "The Breaks" (Columbia, 1980) and the much more radical "How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise" by Brother D. (Clappers, 1980), "Vicious Rap" was among the first commercially recorded hip hop songs to feature social commentary rather than party rhymes. Such records would remain a rarity until the success of "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five on Sugar Hill two years later. (Chang: 179) The label's erstwhile claim that "Vicious Rap" was recorded in 1978, making it the first hip hop to make it to the recording studio, is sometimes repeated, but the apparent improvement in technique from 1979's "Rhymin' and Rappin'" makes this likely a piece of historical revisionism. A last single from the Winley daughters followed in 1982: "I Believe in the Wheel of Fortune". (Shapiro: 384)

Afrika Bambaataa was, with Grandmaster Flash and DJ Kool Herc (originator of hip hop's breakbeat DJing style), one of the prime movers in the emergence of hip hop in the 1970s. By 1980, Flash was recording for Enjoy Records with his MC team, the Furious Five, while Herc's star had faded—he was working in a record shop in South Bronx. Bambaataa recorded "Zulu Nation Throwdown" (1980) for Winley with his MC crew named The Cosmic Force. He arranged and directed the percussion and rapping, but further live band accompaniment was added before release without his knowledge. (Hager, Village Voice, September 21, 1982) According to Peter Shapiro, though the record is now "ancient-sounding" in hip hop terms, Winley's group here had moved to keep pace with Pumpkin at Enjoy and the Sugarhill band, with Lisa Lee of the Cosmic Force "absolutely destroying all the male MCs". (Shapiro: 384) Bambaataa was initially displeased with the record, but it found favor with the new wave crowds who were being presented with hip hop music, dance and graffiti at shows by Bambaataa and others in downtown New York at this time. Bambaataa returned to Winley for "Zulu Nation Throwdown 2" (1980) with the Soul Sonic Force, but thoroughly dissatisfied with the label, he left for Tommy Boy Records, where he would record a single with a huge impact, "Planet Rock" (1982). (Hager, Village Voice, September 21, 1982) Unruffled, Winley released Death Mix (1983) to cash in on the success of Planet Rock. Death Mix was a vinyl pressing of a third- or fourth- hand cassette tape copy of a bootleg recording of a Bambaataa Zulu Nation night at James Monroe High School in the Bronx in 1980. Death Mix features Bambaataa and Jazzy Jay using an eclectic mix of records—including "Computer Games" by Yellow Magic Orchestra, showing the sensibilities that would lead to the electro of "Planet Rock"—, cutting up breaks for Zulu Nation MCs, and demonstrating early scratching techniques. (Lewis: 101) (Shapiro: 4) (Toop: 99) Despite its extremely poor sound quality, it is "the best commercially-available snapshot of hip-hop's earliest days". (Shapiro: 385)

A new generation of acts appeared in the early to mid 1980s on labels like Def Jam, Profile and Cold Chillin', with a tougher image, musical style and lyrical delivery than their predecessors (see New school hip hop). This—what Shapiro calls "the Run-D.M.C. revolution"—signaled the end for labels like Enjoy, Sugar Hill and Winley. After releasing "Street Rock" by Rap Dynasty in 1985, the label folded, though two discs appeared in 2007 bearing the imprint's name and purporting to contain Bambaataa material from the 1970s. (Shapiro: 385) (Hsu, New York Times, September 15, 2007) A collection of Winley hip hop, Death Mix: The Best of Paul Winley Records,http//www.mixtapes.com/larry