Rap's history does not include everyone who contributed to its rise. Sha-Rock, of the Funky 4 and Funky 4 + 1, reaffirms her role as the first woman MC in hip-hop's formative years.
The very moment [I got] my taste for hip-hop is 1976 as a B-girl — you know, being out there, break dancing, watching young kids move around throughout the Bronx, traveling as nomadic B-girls and B-boys, just to hit those breakbeats. The MCing came in 1977. The first person that I saw breakdance was friends of mine that had went to junior high school with me. They taught me what it was to uprock, what it was to just hit the beats whenever you hear that certain break beat.
The circle was always male-dominated. It was a young male sport at the time. I was sort of like a tomboy growing up. But there was just a feeling that you knew you had to be a part of. Some of us was living in poverty, politicians always doing their own thing. So when we came within that circle, that was our way to get away from all the other negative stuff.
Flyers for early hip-hop events featuring Sha-Rock, including one as a member of the original Funky 4.Flyers for early hip-hop events featuring Sha-Rock, including one as a member of the original Funky 4.In late 1977, I became the first female MC, but at the time there were only two male MCs [in the organization] — Keith Keith and K.K. Rockwell. And then at the beginning of '78, we add another MC to the group, Rahiem. This is how we became the original Funky 4.
I was always a secret weapon. In order to compete with my group, a lot of other groups were scrambling trying to find female MCs that can be able to deal with Sha-Rock. I never felt no kind of way because my group had always let people know, out there in New York City or wherever we travel — whether it was Connecticut, Washington, D.C., any place up and down the I-95 corridor — that MC Sha-Rock was the best female MC, and that they had the best female MC ever.
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