SILVER FOX
2
Sometimes there’s more to being a legendary rapper than classic records. You might have heard Silver Fox on one of the three 12” singles he released as part of the Fantasy Three, but his legacy runs a lot deeper than a mere mid-80’s footnote. Having established a reputation as formidable MC through battling at parties and clubs all over New York, this Grant Houses resident from Harlem would soon go on to mentor two of hip-hop’s greatest lyricists – LL Cool J and Kool G Rap. Considering that the lyrical techniques Fox passed onto Kool G Rap were adopted by everyone from Big Daddy Kane, Big L to Nas, it’s clear that his influence is still being felt to this day. I was an old head – I was 21 years-old. When I started, the only people older than me were Melle Mel and them. I had went to Alaska in ’75, when hip-hop had already started – but I wasn’t really into it then. I was into the Funk era – Brass Construction, BT Express. When I came back, I went back to the projects where I grew-up at. Then I see these guys out here with these turntables and this music and stuff, and they were swiping the electricity from the lamp posts. I was like, ‘Man, what are these guys doing?’ It was amazing to me. So I came out there and I listened to ‘em, then I went to the crib, wrote a rhyme down and I came down the next day like, ‘Yeah! I got it!’ And it was butt! I mean my rap was pure garbage! I made some ol’ Mickey Mouse rhyme – and I mean that literally! My brother snatched me off the stage like he was saving my life – like somebody was throwing a bomb at me or something. He grabbed me, ‘Nooooooo!’ He literally took me off of there. My brother Wes, he took me in the staircase and he’s like, ‘Man, I don’t know what you was doin’, man – but that’s not it! That was garbage.’ I was like, ‘Well, OK. How is it done then? What you think I should be doing?’ One of them type of numbers, right? So then he started bangin’ on the staircase, going, ‘Boom-bap! Ba-boom, boom-bap!’ And he started going, ‘The W-E the S-S-U and when I be on the mic I play it real cool/They call me Wessu, so I’m tellin’ the tale – the bad, bad brother that likes to throw down!’ I was like, ‘I’m the R-E double G-I-E…’ At first I was calling myself Reggie Reg, but then I found out that somebody else name was Reggie Reg. There was three of ‘em. So now I had to think of another thing. There was a thing for the Audi ‘Fox’, and it was the silver edition, and they called it the Silver Fox! I said, ‘Oh man! That is bad! I like that, man’. So now I was Silver Fox. Now I’m writing, I’m spending all my time writing and writing and memorizing. I got this crazy memory, man – things just stay up in my head, like books and stuff – so all these rhymes, I just started memorizing. I had a big reputation as far as street rhymes. I was just all through the street before I even made records. I was goin’ everywhere, rappin’. I had a after hours spot that I’d go through it was called Joe Grants. That’s where I would actually perfect my skills,