Kool Moe Dee is a true legend. I say true legend in the sense that his actual story and musical contributions are so remarkable that he seems mythical. For Kool Moe Dee isn’t just one of hip hop’s earliest pioneers. He wasn’t just the unofficial lead of one of rap’s first groups, The Treacherous Three, debuting on record in 1980. He didn’t simply drop a classic album in 1987 entitled, How Ya Like Me Now, and participate in a world renown clash of words with James Todd Smith, and document the most complete ranking of the 50 greatest emcees in his book, There’s a God On the Mic. And he isn’t just one of the greatest emcees of all time. No, Kool Moe Dee is Father of the greatest emcees.

He wasn’t the first to pick up the mic and say, “yes, yes y’all,” or implore the party people to, “rock tha house.” He wasn’t the first man on the mic in the new musical genre that would eventually become Hip-hop. Moe Dee did, however, help birth the modern emcee, the lyricist, the cat that made the dude on the microphone an artist as opposed to a hype man. Before Moe Dee, most cats on the mic were today’s Lil Jon or the 90s’ Luke Skyywalker (Hip-hop please forgive me). They hyped the party with call and response over the DJ’s beat.

Emcee: “Are y’all ready to rock?”

Crowd: “Oh yeah!!!”

This type of microphone master was known as “disco rapper.” Nevertheless, Moe Dee, along with Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five and Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers, would transform the disco rapper into the emcee. Melle Mel is popularly known as the father of this transformation, and so is Grandmaster Caz to a lesser extent. But Moe Dee’s contribution to the modern emcee is different. He is the emcee who was futuristic in the very late 70s, very early 80s. Moe Dee’s skills and styles were before their time. All 3 men laid the foundation and created the standard of what an emcee had to be if he would, in fact, be considered an emcee. Yet Moe Dee’s performance of that established standard advanced past Melle Mel’s and Caz’. This same performance is evident when comparing Big Daddy Kane and Rakim. What is it that makes Rakim better than Kane? In ’88, Kane had the hottest 1988 skills, styles and rhymes. But in ’88, Rakim had the hottest 1991 skills, styles and rhymes. The same holds true for Biggie and Nas. Biggie was killing it in ’94. Nas was killing ’94 in ’92. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five recorded their classic song, “Superrappin,” in 1979.

This song demonstrates the talents of the emcee established by Melle Mel. It features no call and response. Mel’s voice is harder than most rappers of the time and his rhymes are on beat (a skill that Mel championed.) However, in 1979, Spoonie Gee and The Treacherous Three introduced one of Moe Dee’s new styles - “speed rapping” - on their song, “The New Rap Language.” Here the 4 emcees display an almost continuous “flow” over the beat, contrasting the spoken, hard hitting cadence of Mel.

The actual impact of Kool Moe Dee’s innovation can be fully understood by reading his tale. Ladies and Gentlemen, here is

“The Legend of Kool Moe Dee: Birth of the Greatest Emcees”

Once upon a time, roughly 19 hundred 60 years A.D., in a place known as Manna-hata or “island of many hills,” there lived a boy by the name of Mohandes Dewese. Mohandes was fascinated with words and wordplay. He and other boys of the island would often gather and attempt to “out-do” one another in a contest of who had the largest vocabulary, or the broadest command of their native language. Basically, Mohandes loved to talk slick, intelligently.

As Mohandes grew into a teenager, a new form of disco was created in an area just outside of the island’s borders. It involved a traditional DJ, but this disco DJ had an additional responsibility. The DJ would not only spin particular sections of the hottest R&B and disco records called the “breaks,” but he would actually perform on the microphone as well. He would use call and response techniques and smoothly speak out commands such as, “Come alive y’all!” and “Show me what you got.” These DJ “rappings,” would excite the disco people and the disco party would be that much more live. Eventually, the DJ’s rapping proved to be such a great skill in itself that another person was needed to perform the routine rapping duties at the disco.

Several of the island’s young men began to rap. They were called rappers and the young men who performed the role well began to gain fame throughout the island. Contests were held to determine the best at performing this role, specifically, who could rap more unique phrases that would maximize the disco crowd’s dancing and overall enjoyment. By this time, Mohandes became a natural at rapping and had gained substantial fame. He did not simply command the people. What made Mohandes so great was that his rapping was, in actuality, a form of poetry that had been done by none other before him. Mohandes was creating concise poetic statements that flowed over the beats with tremendous rhythm, wit and precision. His rapping could be categorized as actual song lyrics and he deemed his new style of rapping, “speed rapping.” Almost all other rappers were still using the old call and response techniques like “Get on up” and “Party to the beat y’all!”

One night, while serving as contest host of the island’s rappers, Mohandes was inadvertently challenged by one of the contestants. This contestant was a brash and arrogant man known as Busy Bee Starski. Busy Bee had previously won many contests and was known throughout the island for his abilities to excite the disco crowds. So confident and egotistical was Busy Bee that he openly ranted he could rap far greater than any one daring to compete against him. During his rant, someone in the audience responded that the host of the contest was, in fact, the best rapper on the island and that Starski’s rapping was no match for Mohandes’. Although unfamiliar with Mohandes’ rapping skills, Busy Bee still proclaimed that Mohandes was a chump and that he would not only destroy Mohandes, but anyone else who entered the competition.

The arrogant man shrugged off the idea of competing with Mohandes and proceeded with his performance, much to the crowd’s delight. Their enjoyment was further enhanced as Busy Bee rapped commands such as, “If you love yo momma, say you know that!” As his time came to an end, he calmly walked off the stage, confident that no other scheduled contestant for the night could win over the crowd that he had just so thoroughly rocked. Although Mohandes was merely the event’s host and not an official contestant, he felt compelled to set the record straight. How could he let this cocky man continue to profess himself as the greatest when, in fact, he wasn’t? Besides, he had been openly insulted, and felt that Starski should be taught a lesson.

Mohandes calmly set the stage, introducing himself to the crowd and prefacing what was about to happen. He didn’t boast but confidently told the crowd, “I’ll give it to the man, he know how to rock the crowd, but when it comes to having rhymes, no way he can f*ck around.” The DJ dropped a beat and Mohandes began what would become one of the most awesome moments in modern history. The words that Mohandes rapped were not words, but fire spewing from his mouth. He verbally assaulted Busy Bee, telling him to “Put that Ba-diddy-Ba bullsh*t on hold.” The contest was no longer a contest but a full-fledged battle. The crowd was intoxicated, for they had never seen a man spit fire. They screamed and applauded their approval as Busy Bee pleaded for Mohandes to shut up. Not only was Starski being verbally roasted, but the crowd became more live at the site and sound of him burning. Mohandes finally extinguished his rapping leaving Busy Bee and his prized style exposed and officially outdated.

THE END

The aftermath of this infamous battle is legendary. The clash of these 2 men made it obvious that emceeing was more than strictly rocking the crowd. Emceeing had now evolved into a battle where the contestants displayed skills, styles and flows in an attempt to dominate, even humiliate each other. The audio of the renowned battle circulated through the underground, first in NYC, then throughout the country and even across the oceans. The impact was so great that later, fellow rap legend KRS-One would reflect and comment that, “If it wasn’t for Kool Moe Dee, we’d all still be rhyming, ba-diddy-ba-da-dang-a-dang-diddy-diddy.” It is quite possible that without Moe Dee there would be no Rakim, no Nas, no MF Doom or any of the emcees saluted by hop throughout its history. This one man, specifically, this one battle reshaped popular music in legendary fashion.

Now typically, most do not believe in legends. Yeah, right there was a man who possessed such verbal powers that he could actually spit fire. Fortunately, here is actual audio footage of the famous battle that took place in 19 hundred 81 years A.D. Enjoy and knowledge it. Kool Moe Dee y'all, living legend.