Spoonie Gee

Spoonie Gee stood among rap’s first wave of artists and counted veteran R&B producer Bobby Robinson as his uncle. His “love rapper” persona took shape with the debut release “Love Rap,” issued on Robinson’s Enjoy imprint as the B-side to the Treacherous Three’s “The New Rap Language.” Whereas most early rap records simply documented an MC’s party set through loosely connected boasts, stories, and call-and-response exchanges, Spoonie’s opening effort built a hip-hop track around romantic subject matter, aligning it more closely with pop-song conventions. The spare “Love Rap” featured only drum set and congas, and his follow-up single maintained that stripped-down approach. On 1979’s “Spoonin’ Rap,” the vocal delivery stayed within familiar old-school boasting yet introduced jailhouse imagery that anticipated later gangsta attitudes; the track also proved forward-looking through its prominent flexatone and heavily echoed vocals, hinting at Jamaican influences some rap pioneers had downplayed in early interviews. In 1980 Spoonie teamed with Sequence for the single “Monster Jam,” widely regarded as the definitive entry in the “Good Times”/“Another One Bites the Dust” cycle and a Sugar Hill classic distinguished by its crushing bassline and jubilant crowd sounds. During the mid-1990s the Ol’ Skool Flava label released the anthology Godfather of Hip Hop, and more than ten years later Spoonie returned with the EP The Boss Is Back.