Schoolly D: “People who say I invented gangsta rap are absolutely correct” – rock the bells

Ahead of his Philly Music Festival show, Schoolly D recently sat down with Philadelphia Magazine to touch on his illustrious career. Specifically, how he built upon Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five’s “The Message” to give birth to what we know recognize as the gangster rap genre.

Schoolly D recorded “Gangster Boogie” in 1984. The rhymes built upon Melle Mel’s portrait of life in the inner city — specifically taking the point of view of someone selling drugs on the block. The tape subsequently circulated through club DJ’s.

He took the self-produced — and self-pressed record (made from money selling shoes) — to DJ Lady B whose Street Beat show on Power 99 was one of the most influential Hip-Hop radio shows in the country at the time. She told him that the record was too grim in its portrayal of life to warrant any spins. Undeterred, he doubled down.

His rhymes were inspired by the neighborhood around 52nd Street and Parkside Avenue in the city’s Wynnefield area whose historic houses that bordered Fairmount Park were overrun by gang graffiti from the Park Side Killers. Naturally, he wanted to tell Hip-Hop fans about P.S.K.

Hip-Hop purists — and artists like Ice T — acknowledge just how profound an impact both Schoolly D and “P.S.K.” had in the spread and popularity of gangster rap.

Read the interview below.

The name on my birth certificate is …Jesse Bonds Weaver Jr. When I needed a rap name, I didn’t want to be Jesse B. I loved to school people, so Schoolly D was born. The “D” stands for “dunk” — I could slam-dunk a basketball.

People who say I invented gangsta rap are …absolutely correct. I released the first known gangsta rap album,SchoollyD. Some Spin journalist called the genre “gangsta rap” because he was interviewing these gang members in Baltimore and all they were listening to were my songs, like “P.S.K. What Does It Mean?,” so the journalist said, “This must be gangsta rap.” And that is how that all started.

I knew I wanted to be a rapper when …I saw Richard Pryor on Johnny Carson in 1976. And I listened to the way he talked and his rhythm. I turned to my mother and said, “That’s what I want to do, but with music.”

The biggest difference between rap today and when I started out is …that you couldn’t get a deal unless you were actually good back then. And you could also tell where a rapper was from by the way they sounded, but now, it all sounds the same, so there’s no regionality to it.

When people today tell me they want to become a rapper, I tell them …to eat a dick. They need to become a doctor or a lawyer. Most wannabe rappers suck, and you’re not even allowed to tell people they suck anymore. The world is a strange, strange place.

Read the entire piece here.