The Furious Five f/ Cowboy, Melle Mel and Scorpio - "Step Off"

The Furious Five f/ Cowboy, Melle Mel and Scorpio - Step Off | Divshare | YSI

Today's special guest Rap Week contributor is Professor Rockwell. He used to be a DJ in a rap-rock group but he's over that now. He spins records and blogs at Porn 4 Scientolgy.

I came of hip-hop age during the 'golden era' (1985-1995) thanks to my older brother bringing home tapes of his college radio station. This was right around when Run-D.M.C.'s "Raising Hell" dropped, and my bro knew I was starting to get into this 'new' music, so he brought home a copy of the hip hop show one holiday, and this tape was on constant rotation for at least a good year. It was funny, cause the host kept complaining that the mobile DJ crew had taken all the good records so he was playing all this 'old' music. I only clearly remember a Stetsasonic song, a Prince song and this one.

This song just blew my little 12 year old mind at the time. I had just graduated from elementary to middle school and was starting to learn the hard lesson of social cliques and the 'freaks & geeks' vs. 'cool kids' demarcation. I fell into the former group because I was smarter than average, didn't like football (I was a swimmer), and found the nerdy dudes to be way more interesting and hilarious than any small-town, white-trash motherfucker making an ass of himself. That and I was still playing with Transformers. So to make up for my social outcast-ness I immediately identified with anything counter-cultural, and in a small, almost-rural, all white town with a population of around 50,000, hip hop was the way to go.

This was the first rap song I ever memorized and would fast forward and rewind to listen to over and over again, and started a long love affair with this music. It's still one of my favorites, and is one of the only songs I still remember the words to.