Long Live the Kane

Big Daddy Kane

album cover

No Half Steppin'

Recorded in 1988 during what many consider old-school hip-hop's artistic zenith, Long Live the Kane offers a glimpse of the moves, motivations, and morals of the typical hip-hop don. The mighty Kane (Antonio Hardy) was a part of the New York scene from its early days, and through a brain-scrambling assortment of devastating putdowns, battle taunts, and boasts about his own cleverness, he breaks down exactly what's involved in rocking the house. It's Old-School Hip-Hop 101.

Unlike the latter-day rap stars who still cop from his playbook, Kane never just leans on one kind of narrative. He's an operator around the ladies. But he's also a formidable wordsmith who can spin an extended story out of thin air—a skill he touts on the blistering "Set It Off." And on "I'll Take You There" (which is built on the Staple Singers' hit) and "Word to the (Mother) Land," he appears as a socially aware black man, voicing dismay over conditions in urban neighborhoods. Kane wasn't the first to deliver socially aware raps, but he's among the most influential: Common and other truth-telling rappers of the 1990s cite this record as early inspiration.

It's interesting to hear a statement of purpose like "Ain't No Half Steppin'" after even cursory exposure to 1990s gangsta rap, with its endless cartoonish confrontations and routine degradation of women. Like the gangstas, Kane doesn't suffer fools. But he's not exactly prone to whipping out the Glock and shooting to settle a disagreement—he'd rather use humor to silence an adversary. And where the gangstas rely on an almost generic horror-film menace in the backing tracks, Kane and producer Marley Marl foster a feeling of bright, freestyling spontaneity, with spongy, danceable beats, squiggly synth sounds, and needle-to-the-eardrum noises. The bubbling stew keeps everything copacetic like it was back in the day, when rappers weren't afraid to show vulnerability. And a deep respect (love, really) for the rhyming art defined the discourse.

Genre: Hip-Hop
Released: 1988, Cold Chillin'/Warner Bros.
Key Tracks: "Ain't No Half Steppin'," "I'll Take You There," "Raw," "Just Rhymin' with Biz"
Catalog Choice: It's a Big Daddy Thing
Next Stop: LL Cool J: Mama Said Knock You Out

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