Hip Hop enthusiasts across the five boroughs gathered on Sunday, June 5, at Gun Hill Playground in The Bronx to celebrate African American Music Appreciation Month and honor the legacy of hip-hop’s first female emcee, MC Sha-Rock.

 

Against the backdrop of ample sunshine and live music, some of hip hop’s earliest titans, including Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Lil Rodney C of Funky 4 +1, DJ Breakout, and battle rapper Sparky D, paid tribute to MC Sha-Rock, whose musical talents and contribution to Hip Hop culture helped shape the scene for women in Hip Hop today, and have often been overlooked.

 

“Without MC Sha-Rock, my mother, there would be no me,” said Sparky D. “So, I’m standing in for all the female emcees that are not here today, and we just want to say, ‘We love you, Sha Rock,’ and we thank God for you because without you, there would be no us.”

Born in Wilmington, North Carolina, MC Sha-Rock (born Sharon Green) moved to the Bronx, the birthplace of hip-hop, in the early 1970s. As a teenager, she top-rocked and two-stepped her way across the five boroughs as a “b-girl” or breakdancer and rapper.

 

Toprock is a major component of breakdance. It generally refers to foot movement performed from a standing position, relying upon a mixture of coordination, flexibility, rhythm, and most importantly, style.

 

In 1979, she became a founding member of the group The Funky Four +1, and that same year, the group signed a record deal, making MC Sha-Rock the first female emcee to record a song.

 

Success for the group continued to grow, and in 1981, through a connection with Debbie Harry of “Blondie,” the group performed on Saturday Night Live, making The Funky Four +1 the first hip-hop group to showcase the art of rap and Hip Hop culture to a national audience. At the time, MC Sha-Rock admits that she and The Funky Four didn’t realize the event’s significance as it was happening.

“At the time, we didn’t think about it being a historic moment. We never thought about that because, for us, performing came naturally,” Sha-Rock told the Norwood News. “We didn’t think people would go on and say that The Funky 4+1 made history. We just thought – okay, now we’re going to be on Saturday Night Live. Let’s do it.”

 

But for MC Sha-Rock, looking back, performing on Saturday Night Live’s stage was significant for another reason; she was seven months pregnant with her first child.

 

“My stomach was hurting so bad, and so for me, I wanted to stand in a certain place without moving too much. So, then when we started rhyming and stuff, you could hear my voice.”

 

In 1985, MC Sha-Rock left New York. As the years passed and rap music began catching the ears of international audiences, her groundbreaking contributions to the birth of the music and culture we know today as Hip Hop were largely forgotten. But in 2019, when New York City Council formally declared June 1, “MC Sha-Rock Day,” the “Mother of the Mic,” as she’s sometimes called, started to reap the appreciation and accolades she’s earned over the years.

“It’s only fitting to give a day to honor an icon, a luminary icon,” said this year’s Sha-Rock event co-host and former District 12 City Councilman Andy King. “MC Sha-Rock did it first in the Boogie Down Bronx, rolling around in a man’s world, and she got it right.”

 

When asked what she thought about MC Sha-Rock Day, the rapper told Norwood News that it made her nostalgic but, more importantly, she finally felt appreciated and recognized for the critical role she played in the birth of Hip Hop and its unique culture.

 

“To see all of the people who were there to support me, that’s when I realized maybe I don’t have to cry anymore,” she said, adding, “To see all of the Hip Hop community out there, and knowing and feeling that we were all there for one cause, to reminisce and to have fun, that was the best feeling I could’ve ever asked for.”