This is a journey back into time, where disco reigned supreme. The clubs were the place to be, but for those who were under 21 and 18, they felt left out. In Lauryn Hill’s song “Superstar,” she fires, “Hip Hop started out in the park…” she was absolutely right. Rodney Stone who went by Lil’Rodney C. is one of the people responsible for creating this thing that we all call Hip Hop. As a member of the pioneering Funky Four Plus One More, which was renamed The Funky 4+1, he was able to say that he and the other members of his group were the first to do different things with the culture. Though the group was very popular and still holds the record for the longest running Hip Hop song, they never recorded a single album. And after a bidding dispute with their label, Rodney Stone who went by Lil’Rodney C. left the group. Flash forward 30 years and Stone is starting a fund to help pioneering Hip Hop legends like himself with everything from legal issues, to healthcare.
Childhood – Pre Hip Hop
“Hip Hop was born on August 12, 1973. Eleven days after I moved to the Bronx,” says Stone who was introduced to the culture a year later. But before that, Stone says that he was always actively involved in the arts. “I went to church like a mailman – rain, hail, sleet, and snow,” Stone says. His grandmother was an organist so he was in the choir up until his teen years. He was in every school production and remembers when he played Travis in A Raisin in the Sun. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s daughter was in the audience, “And she said, ‘I see something in you’ to me.”
Allow Me to Introduce Myself… Lil’ Rodney C
When Rodney moved to the Bronx he was 10 years old. Rodney remembers first being acquainted with Hip Hop. “I went to a park and saw Grandmaster Flash before he was with The Furious Five. Keith Cowboy (Robert Keith “Cowboy” Wiggins) was the first person I saw on the mic – he was a party starter,” Stone says. “I saw Melle Mel (Marvin Glover) and he was the first person to do a rhyme.” The early days of Hip Hop were all about the DJs, “This was before people started developing rhymes and stories.” The MC hyped the DJ. “I listened to this and I said, I can do this and not only can I do it, but I can do it well,” Stone says. Hip Hop became Stone’s life, “I ate, slept and drank Hip Hop.”
Stone says that by this time, Hip Hop’s elements were growing. “Graffiti was the first part. When we started doing parties, we got the graffiti artists to do our flyers. Then it was the DJs – that’s what made Hip Hip – Hip Hop. It was the music that DJs played.” Disco was still reigning supreme. “Hip Hop was born out of necessity to be a part of,” Stone says. “A lot of things you see today people call it Hip Hop but it’s not. Rap is the offspring of Hip Hop. It is the vocal part of the culture. Hip Hop separated the DJ who played the music and the MC who controlled the crowd. The B-Boys (break dancers) did the dance. Then there came the beat box which was the last element. If you talk to some, they say that there are six elements of Hip Hop – the last being knowledge.”
In 1977 he joined the Magnificent Seven – but there were eight members. Stone was 14 at the time. He was friends and attended high school with Kevin Smith who went by KK Rockwell. “He’s my brother from another mother,” Stone says of Rockwell. Stone’s school held a lot of fundraisers and sponsored parties in the parks. Normally, the athletic teams chose what the themes of the parties would be. Jeff Miree who went by Jazzy Jeff (not to be confused with DJ Jazzy Jeff) played on the basketball team and was good friends with Smith and Stone. For one party, Miree convinced the coach to have a Hip Hop event and allowed Stone and the other members of The Magnificent Seven to perform. “We did that for a year and a half.” In 1979 the group broke up. “But I am in contact with the group now. All eight of us are planning a reunion and we are working on that as we speak,” Stone says. After that – 18 months later, Stone got the opportunity to audition for what he refers to as, “The Funky.”
Funky Four, The New Funky Four Plus One, The Funky 4+1, The Sequence
DJ Breakout was known in the Bronx for having the cleanest sound-system – and in the early days of Hip Hop, the volume played a big part in the culture according to Stone. That’s why when the opportunity to audition for The Funky came, Stone didn’t hesitate. He’s excellent with dates and remembers his audition just like it was yesterday. But why was there an opening? One of the original members – Guy Todd Williams who went by Raheim, was leaving the group. “Depending on who you talked to, Raheim said he quit. Others say that they fired him,” Stone says. The Funky made a pact to not perform on anyone else’s sound system and Raheim went out and freelanced and the group found out, according to Stone. ‘He (Raheim) will tell you that he quit because the group was substandard in his eyes.” Raheim would move on to another pioneering group, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. Sharon Green, who went by Sha Rock, left the group in protest of Raheim’s departure.
The Funky had an opening for two MCs. Miree and Stone auditioned for Baron Chappell who went by DJ Baron. “I was 15 and Baron was about 21. We went up to his room, KK (who was already in the group) gets the mic and passes it to me, and I do my thing and so does Jeff who passes it back to KK, and we recorded a thirty minute tape and when he finished the tape, he asked if we had ever performed in front of a live audience.” Later that day, Lil’ Rodney C, and Jazzy Jeff performed for the first time with The New Funky Four Plus One at the park for a party celebration for DJ Baron. The concert went well – and subsequent other concerts did well enough for Sha Rock to return to the mic, “And that is how we became The Funky Four Plus One More,” says Rodney.
In November of 1979, The Funky Four Plus One More signed with Enjoy Records ran by Bobby Robinson. “Enjoy was a good label but Hip Hop was considered a fad. The first people to get involved with it were looking to milk it – not invest in it,” Stone says. “He wanted to capture the sound, but he didn’t want to develop the sound.” Around the same time, a trio from New Jersey named, The Sugar Hill Gang released “Rapper’s Delight,” under the Sugar Hill Records imprint. The track was executive produced by Sylvia Robinson who also owned the label with her husband. “It (Rapper’s Delight) is a record that was created by a fictitious group that had nothing to do with Hip Hop,” Stone says. When asked if others felt the same way, he said, “Everybody who is building this culture.” Evidentially the Bronx was upset. “The group was developed in New Jersey, and Hip Hop was born in New York. A rap record was made, and we were not a part of it.” The Sugar Hill Gang is still credited with releasing the first Hip Hop record to mass audiences. But Rodney isn’t sold. “Rap is something we do; Hip Hop is a way that we live.” The Sugar Hill Gang is widely credited with having the longest running Hip Hop song with “Rapper’s Delight” being 14 minutes and 36 seconds, but that record actually belongs to The Funky for their single, “Rappin & Rockin The House” which lasts 16 minutes in total – the song was released the same year as “Rapper’s Delight.”
That same year, three labels released Hip Hop records (Enjoy! Records: Spoony Gee (Gabriel Jackson), The Funky Four Plus One More, and Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. Sugar Hill Records: The Sugar Hill Gang, and The Sequence. Mercury Records: Kurtis Blow (Kurt Walker). Stone credits Kurtis Blow as the first solo artist to get a major recording contract.
According to Stone, the group began to grow restless at Enjoy! Records after being left stranded down south after a concert with no pay. They moved on to Sugar Hill Records after just a year in 1980. During the signing process, Stone says that he was a bit skeptical. “Sylvia Robinson sent scouts to our shows. We went to hear what she was talking about and I didn’t get a good vibe from her. I could tell from the door that she was a crook.” But the group didn’t have any other labels to go to. Hip Hop was still young and mainstream labels weren’t sure if Hip Hop was going to last. “When we got there, we were just another act in her stable. They treated us like little kids.” While under Sugar Hill, The Funky became The Funky 4+1 and recorded their most popular song, “That’s the Joint” which they also performed on Saturday Night Live – becoming the first Hip Hop act to make a national appearance on TV. “Fab 5 Freddy (Fred Brathwaite) knew Charlie Ahearn who hung with Debbie Harry (Blondie),” Stone says. “Fab 5 Freddy was walking around with a tape on one side it was The Furious Five, and the other side was The Funky. Charlie comes to see us and when he gets there, he brings his camera.” During this time, The Funky was transitioning from Enjoy! to Sugar Hill Records. When at Sugar Hill, Rodney says that Ahearn approached Sylvia Robinson about doing the documentary and she turned him down. He then asked if he could get them on SNL, would she reconsider. She said yes. Ahearn convinced Debbie Harry to let The Funky be her musical guests when she hosted SNL. Stone says that Robinson wanted the Sugar Hill Gang to do the performance, but they asked for The Funky.
After the performance, Harry approached the group with an offer to open a tour and record the title song on her album. But she said she couldn’t do any of that while the group was signed to Sugar Hill Records. She offered to link them with the attorney – and Stone says that the group decided to renegotiate with Robinson or leave the label together. “We signed to Sugar Hill Records individually but as a group – that meant that we could be fired and replaced. That is what Sylvia did to us. We ended up having to go before her to tell her what we wanted. I told her I wanted out,” Rodney says after Robinson refused to reconsider letting Ahearn do the documentary after their SNL performance. “She asked everyone else, and they didn’t say anything, but KK said he wanted out too.” Stone made very little profit at Sugar Hill Records – a $1,000 advance, $500 more than what he got from Enjoy! Records. We were the first group with a female (Sha Rock), the first group from the Bronx to a recording contract, and the first group to do national television. We never got what we should have,” Stone says – though he did receive a royalty of $1885, but has not received another since. “We are the catalysts of Hip Hop. If it were a house, we would be the first brick,” says Stone. The Funky never recorded .
