Before the Boom: Best Proto-Rap and Hip-Hop Albums of the 1970s

It’s hard to pinpoint the precise origins of hip-hop music. But most agree that the seeds were planted in the streets of New York City (the Bronx specifically) around the ’70s.

Sure, the genre wasn’t fully recognized until 1979. Yet, lots of the groundwork was laid over the decade by the likes of DJ Kool Herc, who spread break-beats to block parties and club gigs.

At the same time, spoken word artists were releasing “proto-rap” albums that achieved a hip-hop-adjacent sound. So, while there weren’t many full-fledged 1970s hip-hop albums on the charts, we still have a few influential records that made the genre’s eventual explosion possible.

Let’s check out how these albums and records are still inspiring hip-hop artists and rappers decades after their release!

1. The Last Poets – The Last Poets (1970)

When you hear someone talking about the beginning of hip-hop, your mind might immediately jump to iconic artists like Grandmaster Flash or major record label debuts from the late ’70s.

But the truth is, the seeds of hip-hop culture were planted several years earlier by revolutionary spoken word collectives like The Last Poets. So, we just had to kick off our list with their self-titled debut album, even though it’s technically labeled as jazz/poetry.

The proto-hip-hop album is almost an hour long and contains 13 politically charged tracks. Each track is full of taut rhythms and searing social commentary flowing over the primal thump of congas and drums.

2. The Watts Prophets – Rappin’ Black In A White World (1971)

On the West Coast, a trio (Amde Hamilton, Otis O’Solomon, and Richard Dedeaux) of spoken word revolutionaries known as The Watts Prophets were doing their part to lay the foundation for what would soon become a nationwide phenomenon of hip-hop.

In fact, The Watts Prophets were sometimes considered the West Coast’s poetic answer to the influential work of The Last Poets.

Like their East Coast counterparts, they blended socially conscious lyricism with stripped-down musical arrangements to create a vibe that would directly inspire and foretell the rise of rap. 

RollingStone named their 1969 debut album, The Black Voices: On the Streets in Watts, one of the 40 most groundbreaking albums of all time. The trio’s second album, Rappin’ Black In A White World, didn’t make the cut but has a similarly bold title.

Amde Hamilton once said they were the musicians who “named the art form” when asked about the title of The Watts Prophets’ second album. To him, they were poets who just called their art form “rapping.” 

You can definitely pick up on proto-rap elements pouring out of Rappin’ Black in a White World from the very first track.

3. Ghetto Brothers – Power-Fuerza (1972)

For a perfect encapsulation of hip-hop’s multicultural roots and revolutionary spirit, look no further than the Ghetto Brothers‘ one-and-only album Power-Fuerza from 1972. 

Emerging from the streets of the South Bronx, this obscure group took everything from their Puerto Rican heritage to their love of the Beatles and molded it into one of the most eclectic, impassioned records you’ll ever hear.

Today, they’re recognized as pioneers of hip-hop culture.

But the backstory behind Power-Fuerza is almost as fascinating as the music itself. The Ghetto Brothers started out as an actual street gang looking to pivot in a more positive direction through art and community organizing.

Their rebranding as a musical collective was meant to be a force for good, channeling youthful energy into something uplifting rather than destructive.

That message is just pulsing through every minute of their debut’s brief but mighty eight-song tracklist, spanning a little over 30 minutes.

4. The Last Poets – Chastisement (1972)

After their debut album, the Last Poets released a lot more albums over the ’70s, including the 1972’s Chastisement.

In this political rap album, the group delivers their manifestos over hypnotic arrangements of congas, bass, and saxophone.

The result is a captivating music style that you don’t have to try hard to fit under one label. After all, The Last Poets themselves provided a name for the style in one of the album’s eight tracks, “Jazzoetry.”

5. Lightnin’ Rod – Hustlers Convention (1973)

Among the most crucial and wildly influential albums in hip-hop’s origin story is 1973’s Hustlers Convention by Jalal Mansur Nuriddin.

Interestingly, Jala Nurridin was a member of The Last Poets. However, he didn’t release this concept album with the spoken word group. He didn’t release it under his own name, either. Instead, he went by the alias Lightnin’ Rod.

In Hustler’s Convention, Nuriddin’s gritty narrative takes the form of dramatic fiction following the exploits of two brothers, Sport and Spoon. Sport, the older brother, is a swaggering hustler who ends up defeated by the system. That was a very intentional ending on Nurridin’s part.

For the music itself, the album blends the hard-hitting verses with a laid-back funk-jazz backdrop provided by none other than Kool & The Gang. The results are a premonition of gangsta rap.

Considering its massive influence, the album does seem criminally underappreciated. But to be fair, it was sampled by legends like Wu-Tang Clan while earning praise from Melle Mel and Grandmaster Flash.

6. Gil Scott-Heron – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (1974)

In many ways, the R&B artist Gil Scott-Heron bridged the spoken word roots of proto-hip-hop and the emerging rap music of the ’70s.

This hour-long compilation pulls from his output in the early ’70s, including the iconic “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” track that would lend its name to the collection.

Produced by jazz legend Bob Thiele and featuring contributions from esteemed musicians like Hubert Laws and Ron Carter, the album blends Scott-Heron’s poetic lyricism with innovative R&B, funk, and jazz stylings.

From the ferocious commentary of “Whitey on the Moon” to the heartfelt “Lady Day and John Coltrane,” Scott-Heron’s versatility and talent are front and center.

Bonus Point: Check out the ’74 mainstream hits that The Revolution Will Not Be Televised was up against!

7. Parliament – Mothership Connection (1975)

In the mid-70s, George Clinton’s cosmic funk collective Parliament-Funkadelic was operating at peak powers, reaching an apex with the wildly influential Mothership Connection. 

The band’s interstellar fixation shined through the tracklist just as much as it did in the album title. The trademark mix of surreal humor, slang, and Afrofuturist mythology is intact, turning each song into a vivid sci-fi adventure dipped in funk with some James Brown-type grooves

If it’s so funk-focused, why is it on this list? Well, this 1975 funk masterstroke planted seeds that would later germinate into hip-hop. A couple of decades later, the album’s DNA would be evident in several hip-hop/rap hits.

For one, Dr. Dre sampled tracks number one and two from Mothership Connection for his 1992 album The Chronic. The first track was also sampled in Snoop Dogg’s “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?” a year later.

8. The Fatback Band – Fatback XII (1979)

Led by session drummer Bill Curtis, The Fatback Band (or simply “Fatback”) was initially formed in 1970 in New York. By 1979, they were bona fide veterans of American disco and funk songs.

They also started recording songs with a hip-hop-like quality even before “Rapper’s Delight” was out. One of those songs is none other than the hit “King Tim III,” which was featured in the band’s album Fatback XII.

While not a rap song in the traditional sense, “King Tim III” crystallized many of the core elements of hip-hop music.

Some people believe the song was a slight afterthought compared to other tracks on the album. Still, that didn’t stop many New York radio DJs from ignoring the A-side completely and focusing on the festival of sounds that is “King Tim III”.

9. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – SugarRappin’ EP (1979)

Clocking in at an epic 12 minutes and 18 verses, this is an EP of a single song rather than a usual LP album. Still, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five hardly a “wasted” second here.

The record was an all-out assault of masterful technique and raw talent that left the world forever changed in its wake. You might even recognize the interlude. It’s the same one Young Gunz repurposed on his version of the song, released in 2003.

10. Funky Four Plus One – Rappin and Rocking the House EP (1979)

Much like “SugarRappin’,” “Rappin and Rocking the House” is also an EP and not a full-fledged album. It’s around 30 minutes long and is a landmark release packed with firsts for the hip-hop genre.

The band behind the record is Funky Four Plus One (Funky 4 + 1), which was the first hip-hop group to perform live on national TV. They also made history by featuring one of rap’s original female MCs—the trailblazing Sharon Green.

And Sharon Green doesn’t waste time. She pops in the very first verse to let you (and all the fly guys) know she’s here and “can’t be stopped.” She goes by “Sha Rock” instead of “Sharon Green,” though.

Either way, she etched a space for future female voices in the genre. But Sha-Rock’s blistering performance is no novelty. She trades fiery lyrics with the other four skilled MCs in the kind of dynamic, call-and-response cipher that defined early hip-hop’s party energy.

11. Honorary Mention: Kurtis Blow – Kurtis Blow

While not a 70s release, Kurtis Blow’s 1980 self-titled debut demands recognition as the first rap album from a major label (Mercury Records).

However, the CD reissue of the album includes the rapper’s big hit “Christmas Rappin‘,” one of the first rap songs to achieve mainstream success following the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.”

But even without the CD reissue, the album includes the classic single “The Breaks,” an iconic track that would go on to be heavily sampled by future hip-hop artists for its drum break and Blow’s introductory vocal rhythms.

As Rolling Stone noted, Kurtis Blow was one of the greatest albums of 1980 (albeit with one hit single from the ’70s).

12. Honorary Mention: Afrika Bambaataa & The Jazzy 5 – Jazzy Sensation

By now you’ve probably guessed that the “honorary mention” label in the title means the record isn’t exactly a 1970s release.

This essential record by Afrika Bambaataa & The Jazzy 5 was released in 1981. But it just has the 70s Bronx hip-hop vibes.

The original 12″ Tommy Boy record includes three versions of the “Jazzy Sensation” track. Obviously, the first is the Bronx Version by Bambaataa and the Jazzy 5. The other two are a Manhattan version and an instrumental cut by The Kryptic Krew.

While “Jazzy Sensation” is a fairly straightforward rap boast, the record’s true significance lies in how it set the stage for his monumental Planet Rock to follow. In case you didn’t know, Planet Rock was an ahead-of-its-time hip-hop/rap album by Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force.

But, sadly, it was released too late to be considered a ’70s masterpiece.

Final Thoughts

It’s safe to say that the Billboard charts weren’t full of hip-hop albums in the 1970s. However, the world was about to be flipped upside down by a revolutionary new art form bubbling up from the streets of New York City.

Records from artists like The Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron, and Grandmaster Flash may have flown under the mainstream radar at the time, but they planted vital seeds.

While rough around the edges, the raw authenticity and fearless creativity of 70s proto-rap and early hip-hop spoke directly to the streets. More than just music, these albums reflected the struggles, joys, and unshakeable spirit of resistance of the artists and poets behind them.

The impact of these proto-rap records still resonates within hip-hop’s soul today!