Xpress Yourself Publishing: The Roof is on Fire: 101 Greatest Moments in Hip-Hop

The Roof is on Fire: 101 Greatest Moments in Hip-Hop
Sean XLG Mitchell

Xpress Yourself Publishing, January 15, 2010
ISBN-10: 0977939820
ISBN-13: 978-0977939824
5½ x 8½ inches
Trade Paperback
$12.95

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he Roof is on Fire: 101 Greatest Moments in Hip Hop celebrates and highlights out-standing events and achievements in rap music over the last 30 years. From the success of mainstream artists like Lil Wayne, Eminem and Snoop Dog to hit films like Krush Groove and Hustle and Flow, every era is explored and documented. Using over 25 years of experience in rap music, Sean XLG Mitchell chronicles events from the past and present and adds shine with exclusive interviews with hip-hop legends to include Dana Dane, Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Mele Mel, the Fat Boys and Queen Pen. XLG reveals a vast array of feats, from the extraordinary and outrageous to the noble and obscure that is both informative and fascinating.

SEAN XLG MITCHELL is the ultimate hip-hop griot. He began his career promoting hit makers from Rockmaster Scott and the Dynamic Three to M.C. Hammer. As an artist, XLG recorded several underground hits as a member of Unlimited Skills and is the first rapper to win a national music competition. He currently works as a freelance writer and is the creator of the hip-hop category Adult Contemporary Rap.

Excerpt (Unedited)

In August 2008, I was having a telephone conversation with Charlie Prince and Slick Rick of Rockmaster Scott and the Dynamic Three. Coincidently, they were scheduled to be the opening act for LL Cool J the following weekend at a show in Richmond, Virginia, and invited me down to check it out. On the night of the show, I made it down to Brown’s Island and I arrived a little late but was able to hook up with Charlie Prince before he went on stage. Charlie ran through the group’s hits: Request Line and The Roof Is On Fire (parts I and II), and had the crowd hyped before he shut it down for L.L.

When LL stepped on stage and started his act, I couldn’t help but to admire his showmanship as I studied his performance. He performed hit after hit and never missed a beat. Jams like Hey Lover and joints off his latest LP Exit 13 to his old classics like Rock the Bells and Boomin’ System turned the show ballistic. LL brought his young fans on stage to participate in the act and they loved every minute of it. Simply put, he controlled the crowd. More than anything else, I saw the formula he used to do it.

What I mean by formula is the schematic plan of the show that L.L. developed over the years as a veteran in the game. This was a skill honed from doing shows with Fresh Fest as an opening act for Run-DMC, Whodini, and Kurtis Blow to the Def Jam Tour and all other performances he’s done throughout his career. A skill that was cultivated much like R&B legends Smokey Robinson and Patti Labelle who had been singing for decades. It was now evident in hip-hop.

The Roof Is On Fire: 101 Greatest Moments In Hip-Hop highlights and recognizes incredible aspects of hip-hop as I cited in the example above. There are literally thousands of significant moments that are worthy enough to be considered great. Monumental events such as D.J. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince winning the first Grammy Award to little known facts like the story of how Doug E. Fresh introduced the human beat-box while performing on stage when the sound system went out and he had to improvise to entertain the crowd by mimicking the sound of the beat with his mouth. Obscure and lesser-known occurrences have similar value within the proper context. A perfect example would be a 1981 article in the Village Voice newspaper, which may seem trivial on the surface until you realize that it was the first mainstream newspaper to focus on hip-hop.

As a hip-hop historian, I searched high and low to recognize the most significant moments and events over the last thirty plus years. Obviously, Sedgewick and Cedar, where Kool D.J. Herc played with his outdoor sound system in the South Bronx, is the birthplace and most eventful moment of the genre. To start from the beginning with Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash and end with Kanye West, T.I. and Lil Wayne is what I have attempted and hopefully achieved with this work. Consequently, the greatest moments are not in any sequential order so they are not numbered by importance. Ultimately, that would take away from the essence of a unified perspective, and collectively the moments are all important and equally deserving of recognition.