On November 11th 1987, the second wave of American hip-hop arrived in Oslo, in the form of Def Jam artists LL Cool J and Public Enemy, who were doing a double bill in the city’s main concert arena, Rockefeller Music Hall. This is how the newspaper Aftenposten described the festivities in advance: "Our first meeting with American ‘super rapping’ takes place this Wednesday (…) 19 year old LL Cool J has been 'rapping' since he was six years old, and has been called the 'Fidel Castro of the rap revolution', whatever that means."
LL Cool J was the evening’s star, the tour was in support of his second album Bigger and Deffer, but the evening would later be referred to as the "Public Enemy concert", even though the group were only the support artists, because the group's music, show and powerful image made a huge impact on the young audience. Fortunately for the development of a Norwegian hip-hop scene, the concert also had a free age limit, since most of the capital's budding hip-hoppers were many years away from their 18th birthday. In Sweden, however, many of LL Cool J and Public Enemy's biggest fans weren't allowed to see their heroes, since the Stockholm concerts at the Ritz on November 13th and 14th came with a strict 20 year age limit.
Rockefeller was only about half full this Wednesday evening, but the night ended up as a gathering of the tribes, for the kids and teenagers that had kept up with the hip-hop scene that emerged in Oslo and the surrounding areas from 1984. The floor was filled with the people who were still doing graffiti, 15-16-year-olds in camouflage pants, battle jackets and Kangol hats, and who clearly stood out amongst an older and more generally music-interested audience.
Public Enemy had just released their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, and arrived on stage in full: Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, Terminator X, and Security of the First World. LL Cool J toured with his hypeman E-Love and two DJs, Cut Creator and DJ Bobcat, as well as an eight by three meter big “ghetto blaster”. The newspaper Aftenposten also got a short interview with LL Cool J, but spent most of the column space on a kind of review of the concert: "Perhaps we should have been given text sheets at the entrance, because this was not rock as we are used to. In rap, the most fast-talking person rules, and they don't use musicians, this is the arena of the DJ and the ghetto blaster. There were few melody lines, but effective use of contrasts of pumping noise and silence. LL Cool J had a sense of humour, but no further aims other than bragging. In fact, the warm-up act Public Enemy was the best, with their socially conscious, hardcore hip-hop. Seriousness goes the farthest.”
The audiences in Stockholm and Copenhagen were treated with more hip-hop shows in the 1980s, many of them with no age limit, like Public Enemy (again), Run DMC, DJ Cash Money and Marvelous, Big Daddy Kane, EPMD, MC Lyte, and The Jungle Brothers. In Norway, however the LL Cool J gig ended up as the first and last hip-hop concert at Rockefeller in the 1980s. When A Tribe Called Quest played the venue on Saturday November 30th in 1990, the Norwegian group A-Team were the support act. The two members, rapper Jayski and DJ Cut Dominator, were amongst the under-age audience who were knocked to the ground by Public Enemy three years earlier.
LL Cool J was the evening’s star, the tour was in support of his second album Bigger and Deffer, but the evening would later be referred to as the "Public Enemy concert", even though the group were only the support artists, because the group's music, show and powerful image made a huge impact on the young audience. Fortunately for the development of a Norwegian hip-hop scene, the concert also had a free age limit, since most of the capital's budding hip-hoppers were many years away from their 18th birthday. In Sweden, however, many of LL Cool J and Public Enemy's biggest fans weren't allowed to see their heroes, since the Stockholm concerts at the Ritz on November 13th and 14th came with a strict 20 year age limit.
Rockefeller was only about half full this Wednesday evening, but the night ended up as a gathering of the tribes, for the kids and teenagers that had kept up with the hip-hop scene that emerged in Oslo and the surrounding areas from 1984. The floor was filled with the people who were still doing graffiti, 15-16-year-olds in camouflage pants, battle jackets and Kangol hats, and who clearly stood out amongst an older and more generally music-interested audience.
Public Enemy had just released their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, and arrived on stage in full: Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, Terminator X, and Security of the First World. LL Cool J toured with his hypeman E-Love and two DJs, Cut Creator and DJ Bobcat, as well as an eight by three meter big “ghetto blaster”. The newspaper Aftenposten also got a short interview with LL Cool J, but spent most of the column space on a kind of review of the concert: "Perhaps we should have been given text sheets at the entrance, because this was not rock as we are used to. In rap, the most fast-talking person rules, and they don't use musicians, this is the arena of the DJ and the ghetto blaster. There were few melody lines, but effective use of contrasts of pumping noise and silence. LL Cool J had a sense of humour, but no further aims other than bragging. In fact, the warm-up act Public Enemy was the best, with their socially conscious, hardcore hip-hop. Seriousness goes the farthest.”
The audiences in Stockholm and Copenhagen were treated with more hip-hop shows in the 1980s, many of them with no age limit, like Public Enemy (again), Run DMC, DJ Cash Money and Marvelous, Big Daddy Kane, EPMD, MC Lyte, and The Jungle Brothers. In Norway, however the LL Cool J gig ended up as the first and last hip-hop concert at Rockefeller in the 1980s. When A Tribe Called Quest played the venue on Saturday November 30th in 1990, the Norwegian group A-Team were the support act. The two members, rapper Jayski and DJ Cut Dominator, were amongst the under-age audience who were knocked to the ground by Public Enemy three years earlier.
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