Kool Moe Dee vs Busy Bee Starski battle at Harlem World
Following a typical call-and-response party set by Busy Bee Starski at the Harlem World club, Treacherous Three's Kool Moe Dee takes the mic and improvises a freestyle attacking Busy Bee's style by name. The bootleg cassette of the encounter circulates widely and is later treated by Jeff Chang (Can't Stop Won't Stop) and Brian Coleman (Check the Technique) as the moment the lyrically substantive battle MC emerges as a distinct format.
Why it matters
December 1981. Harlem World, on Lenox Avenue. Busy Bee Starski did his set the way he always did his set: call-and-response, party-MC, get-the-room-going-and-keep-it-going. The room was loving it. Then Kool Moe Dee, of the Treacherous Three, got on the mic. What Kool Moe Dee did next is the part I want you to understand. He attacked Busy Bee. By name. In extended bars. With internal rhymes and direct insults nobody had been doing on a club stage before. It was the first time the battle MC showed up in public as a distinct format. Not the party-MC. Not the chant-master. The lyrically substantive, you-personally-are-the-target battle MC. The bootleg cassette of the encounter circulated for years afterward. Jeff Chang treats this as the moment rapping as written competition separates from rapping as party hosting. He is right. If you ever wanted to know exactly when the lyric became the weapon, the answer is here. December 1981. Harlem World.
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