walking upstream…
Treacherous Three
Kool Moe Dee, Special K, L.A. Sunshine and DJ Easy Lee formed the Treacherous Three in Harlem in 1978, and on singles like ‘New Rap Language’ and ‘Feel the Heartbeat’ they pioneered the rapid-fire, double-time delivery — ‘speed rap’ — that would later echo through Big Daddy Kane, Rakim and a generation of technically minded MCs. Signed to Sugar Hill Records during the label's early-'80s peak, they helped push rap's lyrics away from party chants and toward the denser, more writerly verses that defined the genre's next decade.
the sound in question
1981
Feel the HeartbeatTreacherous Three
walk the tributaries ↓
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five1980s · hip hop / old-school hip hop / electro
The Treacherous Three followed the more socially conscious, writerly turn Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five set with tracks like ‘The Message,’ pushing their own lyrics further from party chants and toward pointed, structured verses.
listen: upstream & here
1982
The MessageGrandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
1983
ActionTreacherous Three
listen forThe narrative, message-driven writing of ‘The Message’ reappears sharpened into a showcase of pure technical speed on the Treacherous Three's ‘Action.’
DJ Kool Herc1970s · hip hop / funk / breakbeat
Like most of their Bronx generation, the Treacherous Three came up inside the breakbeat culture DJ Kool Herc's park jams invented — the raw sound system and loop that gave any MC something to rap over in the first place.
listen: upstream & heresource: Old School Hip Hop — Treacherous Three profile (DJ Kool Herc/Grandmaster Flash park-jam roots) ↗
1981
Live The T Connection (Part 1)DJ Kool Herc
1980
New Rap LanguageTreacherous Three
listen forThe bare, extended breakbeat of Herc's live sets is the blank canvas the Treacherous Three filled in with the far denser, faster wordplay of ‘New Rap Language.’
Cold Crush Brothers1980s · Hip-hop / Old-school hip-hop
Music critics have long ranked Kool Moe Dee alongside Melle Mel and Grandmaster Caz as hip-hop's three defining rappers of 1978–84 — contemporaries whose ‘harmony-soaked’ Cold Crush Brothers group interplay and lyrical standards (Caz's rhymes, uncredited, had already become Big Bank Hank's verses on ‘Rapper's Delight’ in 1979) the Treacherous Three were writing directly alongside and against.
listen: upstream & here
1983
Punk Rock RapCold Crush Brothers
1981
Feel the HeartbeatTreacherous Three
listen forThe tightly arranged group routines and crowd-drilled hooks of Cold Crush's ‘Punk Rock Rap’ are the model the Treacherous Three tightened even further into the rapid-fire ensemble trading of ‘Feel the Heartbeat.’