Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Richard Sisco Has Passed Away (Cold Crush Brothers + More)

Richard Sisco, an important man involved in the early and fundamental days of the hip hop scene, has passed away. As told in Jim Fricke and Charlie Ahearn's amazing book, Yes Yes Y'all, Sisco was "The first MC to perform with Charlie Chase and what would become the Cold Crush Brothers. He produced many flyers for hip hop jams in the late '70s and early '80s and briefly teamed up with Wanda Dee."

If you've seen Beat Street, you've seen Richard Sisco -


I strongly urge anyone interested in the origins of hip hop to check out Yes Yes Y'all if you haven't already. Sisco is one of the many pioneers to share his memories of the scene in the 70s and 80s. I'm glad he had a chance to share some of his memories. Here's two short excerpts -


On the first MC...


"Kool Herc had his MC - Coke La Rock - but if you want to say the first "rhymer," Cowboy definitely was the first guy in the Bronx that put it together. He used to go on like, "A one-two, y'all," and "Yes yes, y'all," all that kind of stuff, and then he'd start to say a little rhyme. That was the first… We said, "That's funky, man, you checking that out?"


















































On Performing with Charlie Chase...


"Charlie (Chase) started DJ-ing, and being hip to the Black thing, he started playing these records that Kool Herc was playing. That was around '77, '78, when it really started getting pumped. There was a jam over at the Monterey Community Center on Thursday nights. We used to rock it with live DJs - Dizzy Diz, Mighty Mike, DJ Ray, Kool DJ Ron, and a few of the other kids. With Charlie Chase, we said "Yo! We gotta follow him. He's the man to watch."


Here is audio from December 26th, 1980, where Sisco was rocking as a DJ on the bill with the Super Sonic 4 MCs (Ricky Dee, Vicious Cee, Dwayne Dee, Ice Ice and Lil Sha Rock) and Cool Clyde. Listen and download below. Rest in peace to Richard Sisco!


Side A -



Side B -



Download link - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3973E4NV

4 comments:

  1. WE LOVED SISCO AND WILL MISS HIM. HIS MEMORIAL SERICE WILL BE HELD ON FRIDAY 12/31 AT 6:30 PM, 2135 SOUTHERN BVLD, BRONX

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  2. Thanks for letting us know and helping to get the word out!

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  3. Sisco was like a big brother to me and many others. we use to have some good times Djing together.

    Sisco's Press Release below

    http://www.prlog.org/11160214-hip-hop-legend-artist-and-jazz-saxophonist-richard-lee-sisco-jr-passed-away-at-50.html

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  4. I spent a lot of time with sisco in my younger years he drew a picture of me free hand in my father's record shop the rhythm den that I still have today R.I.P.sisco love you bro

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