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Super-Groups Share the Spotlight

Wikipedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L_YHWQMFu4

Rap super-groups—let’s say groups with three or more emcees—have been around since the beginning of hip hop. Most people are probably familiar with the Sugar Hill Gang, or more specifically, the one rap song that even your grandparents know:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKTUAESacQM

While ‘Rapper’s Delight’ achieved a dubious immortality as a standard for wedding dj’s, it’s a poor example of the form. At its best, multi-emcee hip hop is a spectacle of virtuosity, where the funk in the music lays under the lyrical dexterity of the emcees like a bed of fire underneath trapeze artists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAfA0lUmR-o

The group can do what a single emcee cannot—not only creating sonic texture and rhythmic variety through multiple voices, but also strengthening narrative impact through multiple perspectives. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaReKqEqW9Q

Americans love stars—we are fascinated by the individual—but the persistence of the super-group is one of hip hop’s most endearing traits, reminding us that the spotlight isn’t always only about shining, we can share it, too.