KLASSIC KUTS: The Ladies Who Funked Hip-Hop Up

Now, let’s make something clear.

Women were already there.

Before most of America ever heard The Sequence, women had been grabbing microphones and rocking crowds right alongside the men.

MC Sha-Rock of the Funky Four + 1 was one of the earliest and most important. She had already built her name at New York park jams and parties, earning her place as one of hip-hop’s first female MCs.

The Mercedes Ladies were out there too — an all-female crew making noise in New York during hip-hop’s earliest days.

And once rap started making that jump from the park to vinyl, more women started showing up on wax.

In Philadelphia, Lady B dropped “To the Beat Y’all” in 1979, one of the earliest solo rap records by a woman.

Then there were teenage sisters Paulette and Tanya Winley, daughters of Harlem record man Paul Winley. Their 1979 record “Rhymin’ and Rappin’” stands among the earliest commercially released rap records performed entirely by women. Tanya followed with the harder-edged “Vicious Rap” in 1980.

So The Sequence didn’t suddenly invent women in hip-hop.

Far from it.

The ladies were already in the house.

The difference was reach.

When The Sequence — Angie B., Cheryl the Pearl and Blondy — came through with “Funk You Up,” they had Sugar Hill Records behind them.

That meant national distribution.

Records in stores.

Radio airplay.

A song that could travel hundreds of miles away from the New York park jams where so much of this culture had been growing.

And “Funk You Up” traveled.

It climbed to No. 15 on Billboard’s R&B chart, giving The Sequence something few female MCs had experienced at that point: a nationally charting rap record.

For a kid listening outside New York, that mattered.

We may not have known about every MC rocking a microphone in the Bronx. We didn’t have YouTube. There was no social media showing us what happened at the park last night.

We knew what made it to our radio.

We knew what showed up in our record stores or once in awhile somebody from “The City” would bless you with one of those undeniable underground mixtapes with all the hottest MCs in New York blessing the mic.

And suddenly, here were three young Black women from Columbia, South Carolina, coming through our speakers saying:

“We’re gonna funk you right on up!”

And the record didn’t stop mattering once the ’70s ended.

Years later, Dr. Dre pulled from “Funk You Up” for his 1995 hit “Keep Their Heads Ringin’,” carrying a piece of The Sequence into another generation of hip-hop. That’s the kind of thing I love about old records. Sometimes a groove disappears from the charts, then pops back up years later wearing a whole new outfit.

So when you hear “Funk You Up,” you’re not just hearing one of Sugar Hill Records’ earliest releases.

You’re hearing a record that helped introduce women on the mic to a wider audience, helped shape the sound of early recorded hip-hop, and still had enough juice left in it for Dr. Dre to reach back for it more than 15 years later.

That’s a pretty good run for three young women from Columbia, South Carolina, who simply came to funk you right on up.

I introduce to you a Klassic Kut – The Sequence – Funk You Up. Check it out below.

You’re Welcome.

Klassic Love,

Madd Hatta