Hip-hop sure has come miles. Emerging in the Bronx in the 1970s, rap music once consisted of mostly basic beats, rudimentary rhyme schemes, and simple boasts and stories. Since then, the style has infiltrated pop culture with seismic force — and not just in America either. For unimpeachable proof of rap’s power, all you need is YouTube: Look up “rap” and practically any language — Russian, Urdu, Swahili, Vietnamese — and you can find someone out there reciting verses in it. It’s a testament to the genre and globalization alike.
But after it was introduced and before it got its bearings, hip-hop, like any vital art form, needed people to push it into different directions. These are the folks to whom “Masters of Ceremony: Hip-Hop Reunion” bows its head. This reoccurring tour concept reels in luminaries (and lesser-knowns) of 1980s and ’90s rap — the godheads, the trailblazers, the workhorses, the also-rans — concocting lineups that will make serious hip-hop heads foam at the mouth. The New York-rooted bill coming to Foxwoods’ Grand Theater features Public Enemy, Rakim, MC Lyte, Big Daddy Kane, EPMD, Special Ed, Slick Rick and Black Sheep. Before Saturday’s official reunion.
* While his name will never sound right without his producer’s in front of it, Rakim is still crushing mics across the galaxy. Eric B. and Rakim first banded together in 1985, releasing four albums (with at-least one stone-cold classic) and a whole lot of killer cuts before separating in 1992. Armed with a steely voice, an elastic vocabulary and a deep understanding of technique, Rakim was — and is — the definition of the MC’s MC and one of the earliest lyrically brilliant rappers. After going nearly a decade without releasing an album and seemingly unlikely to ever reunite with Eric B., Rakim put out “The Seventh Seal” in 2009 — a record with too middling a reputation considering where it came from — and guested on a DMX track last year. His discography notwithstanding, Rakim’s legacy lives on through shout-outs from other rappers. Even A$AP Rocky — a hot, 26-year-old Harlem rapper whose music is nothing like Rakim’s — owes him a debt, since Rocky’s birth name of Rakim Mayers was inspired by the man.
* When Kendrick Lamar, contemporary rap titan extraordinaire, was born in 1987 and brought home from the hospital, whose music did his father play him? That’s right — Big Daddy Kane. That’s only one example of the impact the Grammy-winning Kane has had on rappers since his time in the spotlight. Releasing his debut, “Long Live the Kane,” in ’88 and the critically acclaimed “It’s A Big Daddy Thing” a year later, Kane was an early paragon of rap swagger and smoothness. With him having not issued a new record since the late 1990s, he’s spent his career since occupying himself with feature verses and concerts. The last two years in particular have been kind to him: He was the sole guest artist for Jay Z’s much-publicized 2012 shows in the then brand-new Barclays Center in Brooklyn; less than a year later, Kane performed at Obama’s Inauguration Ball.
* Any discussion of hip-hop pioneers is incomplete without a nod to MC Lyte. As the first woman to release a major label rap record (1988’s “Lyte as a Rock”) and one of the earliest to make a dent in hip-hop, the Grammy-nominated rapper has paved the way for females who hold their own in a male-dominated genre. Nowadays, when she’s not touring, acting or delivering the occasional guest verse, she pushes positivity and promise by working with various organizations and societies, like Hip Hop Sisters Foundation (a scholarship-awarding organization) and Rock the Vote. She’s planning on releasing her first studio record in 11 years soon, too, with new singles “Ball” and “Dear John” out recently.
* “Socially conscious” doesn’t hold much weight in mainstream hip-hop nowadays, so you might be liable to forget just how hard Public Enemy’s fiery, self-righteous, sociopolitical rhymes once hit. Coincidentally, the group’s two most pivotal documents — 1988’s “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” and 1990’s “Fear of a Black Planet” — were given the big reissue treatment just this week.
Out of everyone on this list, PE leader Chuck D has had the most active career since his prime. As he’s aged, he still tours and puts out records often — Public Enemy put out “The Evil Empire of Everything” in 2012, and he released a new solo record “The Black in Man” this year — while having transitioned to an elder statesman of hip-hop figure. He’s also given several lectures in academic environments, co-written a Public Enemy comic book and — most peculiarly — loaned his name and voice to Micheck Da Candy, a sweet that calls itself “Hip Hop’s First Official Candy Product.” The treat/toy consists of maple candy stored inside a fake microphone. You can press a button on the mic to hear inspirational messages from Chuck himself, like “Tell someone you love them and mean it from the heart. You also want to treat people like you want to be treated.”
Come to think of it, scratch the whole rap-in-every-languages thing; hip-hop candy is when you know that the genre has really made it.
MASTERS OF CEREMONY: HIP-HOP REUNION, featuring Public Enemy, MC Lyte, Rakim and more. $55-$95. 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 29, Grand Theater at Foxwoods Resort & Casino, 350 Trolley Line Blvd., Mashantucket. 800-200-2882, foxwoods.com.
