Nasty Party Rap

Rap musicians claim historical precedent in scat, the "dozens," and even more ancient traditions, such as calypso. But the original "nasty party rap" albums were marketed as adult comedy records and made by the alter-egos of two men. Rudy Ray Moore, a.k.a Dolemite, is the funnier and generally cleverer of the two. Moore's albums usually feature live comedy skits with a funky band in the background and sometimes guests. Moore also produced records by other comedians and even issued some joke books. As Dolemite, he made several venerated "blaxploitation flicks" ("Dolemite," "The Human Tornado," "Petey Wheatstraw," "The Monkey Hustle," "The Disco Godfather"), some with released soundtrack LPs (see separate page).

"A master of tomorrow's comedy today for the Now Generation," Moore assisted Theodore Toney in scouting and signing other comedy acts for the Kent label. Perhaps their most magnificent stroke of genius was finding Nancy Reed, a.k.a. ""Lady Reed," "Queen Bee," "The Madam," and "The Sensuous Black Woman." Possessed of a commanding voice, a full vocabulary, and no squeamishness, Reed very charmingly asserted herself as the queen of nasty-party-rap comedy. Even Moore's best brags and insults ("the dozens") fall short of Lady Reed. The dozens (and other inspirations for "nasty-party rap" albums) are found everywhere from blue and novelty blues records to Iceberg Slim books. Robert Beck, a.k.a. Iceberg Slim, even made an LP of his own, Reflections, which has him reading from his books over music.

The weird and sinister Blowfly, alter-ego of accomplished soul-funk singer and producer Clarence Reid, creates raunchy songs that spoof culture, socio-political topics, and musical styles. (Blowfly incarnates everything anybody ever feared about "race" records, and more.) His early and late albums are all hit or miss, most having their bright moments as well as pitfalls. Inspired songs frequently are undercut by irredeemably tasteless, stupid, pointless offensiveness [far below Reid's capability]. But his soul and funk records (as Reid) are more consistently great, and he produced many others for such stars as Bobby Byrd.

Buying: Most originals by Moore/Dolemite and Reid/Blowfly are at least hard to find, some quite rare.