"The Bridge" is released

Why it matters

"The Bridge" came out August 1, 1986, on Bridge Records. MC Shan was the MC. Marley Marl produced. The song is, on its face, a love letter to the Queensbridge Houses, the New York City public-housing complex where Shan and Marley both lived. The line that started the trouble was that "the bridge," in the lyrics, was meant to be understood as the place where it all began. "It" meaning hip-hop. "There" meaning Queens, not the Bronx. The Bronx did not love that interpretation. KRS-One of Boogie Down Productions, who was from the actual Bronx, recorded a response single called "South Bronx" the next month explicitly to correct the record. The exchange escalated for the next two years ("Kill That Noise," "The Bridge Is Over," "Get Retarded") and is collectively known as the Bridge Wars. "The Bridge" is the song that started it. You can argue about whether Shan actually meant what KRS heard. Either way the song is great, the beat is great, and you can hear it through the entire chain reaction it set off.