Hip-Hop pioneer Scorpio dishes on music he helped pioneer

ALBANY — For rapper Scorpio, folks in the Albany area who come out for the “Old School Hip-Hop Jam” concert Thursday night at the Civic Center will not only get to see a fun and entertaining show, but also will get a glimpse of what hip-hop was in its beginnings, back when he and his contemporaries were inventing the genre.

“This gives the people in Albany a peek into how hip-hop actually started in the Bronx, from the guys that created the culture,” Scorpio said in a phone interview. “It’s a chance to see, I think, living history. I think this is special for us and special for Albany as well. People should come out and have a good time. It’s not every day you have the people that created hip-hop performing for you.”

Indeed, performing at the show will be hip-hop and rap pioneers Kurtis Blow, Kool Moe D, Sugarhill Gang, Rob Base and Grandmaster’s Furious Five, which features both Scorpio and Mele Mel, two of the original Furious Five that got their start in the late ’70s with DJ Grandmaster Flash, who essentially invented the art of scratching and deejaying.

Scorpio said he joined the Furious Five in 1978 under his original moniker Mr. Ness, not long after fellow members Mel, Keith Cowboy, The Kidd Creole and Rahiem, came together to create Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, one of hip-hops most important groups thanks to its magnum opus “The Message.”

Since that time, Scorpio and his fellow hip-hop pioneers have continued to expand and develop the sound and the culture they created, which has now grown into a global phenomenon that affects the lives of millions of people and is responsible for some of the most popular and important music of the past 30-plus years.

“We honestly created hip-hop, something that we brought to the whole world,” said Scorpio. “And unlike jazz or rock ‘n’ roll or other genres of music, the ones that started it are still here, still walking around and still performing.”

Though Scorpio and many of the other artists who helped define hip-hop culture continue to perform and record, only recently have those artists appeared in the mainstream and started thriving again.

Much like the advent of classic rock radio stations in the ’80s and ’90s that gave new life to rock giants like AC/DC, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, several classic hip-hop stations have been popping up around the world, creating a similar phenomenon for artists like those playing Thursday night in Albany.

“We never went away,” Scorpio said. “All of us and others like Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, KRS-1, we’re all working, and some of us are as big as we’ve ever been.”

Scorpio says he believes the reason for this resurgence in popularity is that a maturing audience who is more concerned with raising families or paying the mortgage has trouble connecting with a lot of modern rap, which Scorpio feels glamorizes things that many don’t relate to.

“The culture is for everyone, young people, people in their 20s, and people in their 30s,” Scorpio said. “People in their 40s, 50s, and even 60s, they still love the culture, too. But they can’t listen to hip-hop they have no connection with at all. Classic hip-hop has become huge because there’s a need for it.”

Scorpio added that he felt much of the hip-hop that has come out in recent years has been made by artists who he feels view fans as simply a means to grow wealth, not as people they are necessarily trying to speak to. That connection between performer and listener is what he said fueled the culture early on.

“There is a lot of respect in old-school hip-hop,” Scorpio said. “The main thing is that hip-hop is supposed to be a fun, respectful, peaceful community-type of thing. It’s not supposed to be competitive, and not meant to put people down. It was to lift people up. It’s truly supposed to be the people’s voice and done like you’re talking to somebody.

“A lot of today’s hip-hop, it’s bringing people down, making people feel worse. The way they flaunt their wealth is crazy. Average folks they don’t want to hear about that. It makes people feel bad, like you ain’t doing (nothing) with your life. We’re trying to lift people up.”

Scorpio sees the Albany Old School Hip-Hop Show as a way helping the genre’s fans recapture the spirit and energy and sense of community that drove many of these artists to devote their lives to music.

“I think people are going to come together and have a really good time,” he said. “This music right here is the truth.”

The Old School Hi-Hop Jam is set to start at 7:30 p.m. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. There will also be a meet and greet with the artists following the performance.

Advance tickets to the show are $40 for reserved seating and $30 for general admission. Prices for each increase by $5 the day of the show. Ticket are available at the Civic Center box office or can be purchased online at ticketmaster.com or by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000.

For more information about the concert contact the Civic Center at (229) 430-5200 or (229) 317-7201.