'Mother of the Mic' Sha-Rock reflects on Hip Hop career as first female MC
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Sha-Rock became the first female MC in Hip Hop history.
"I want to take you back to '76 and I say that because that was my introduction to becoming a B-girl," she said.
Born in Wilmington, North Carolina, Sharon Green, always had a deep love for music.
"I was born in the South. So I was introduced to people like Isaac Hayes, you know, James Brown and Millie Jackson, Nikki Giovanni, Aretha Franklin," she said.
She moved with her family to New York, using breakdancing as an outlet in the gritty South Bronx.
"It was like something magic, where you know what, no matter what you were going through at school or at home, that was your way to release everything on that dance floor," Sha-Rock said.
She walked Eyewitness News through her journey, first picking up a mic after her mom, Juanita Nettie Green, affectionately known as Dot, enrolled her and her siblings in a poetry slam.
"She wrote my first rhyme and wanted me to recite it," she said.
"And what she said to me that always stuck with me, she said, 'Listen, if you're going to say something, you got to say something to engage the crowd, the way that your cadence is what's going to get them,'" Sha-Rock said.
It was that new found skill, that led her to win rap competitions.
She later landed an audition for a group called the Disco Brothers.
She started rapping when the group's manager, Jazzy D, stopped her.
"He was like, 'Look, you're going to be awesome.' He said, 'What is your name?' I said, 'Sharon.' He said, 'Well, I'm gonna call you SHA for sure. SHA, because you rocked it. So your name is SHA-Rock,' and from ever since then I took off running in 1977."
Mc Sha-Rock signed her first contract. The group later became The Funky 4 Plus One More.
They made history, performing "That's the Joint" On "Saturday Night Live" in 1981.
They were the first rap group to perform on national television.
"We became, you know, the first you know, rap group, also with the female to have a record deal," she said.
Laying the groundwork for iconic female rappers for decades to come.
"I'm the mother of the mic. And I helped move this culture forward and shout out to all the queens that helped move this culture forward in so many different ways," she said.
ALSO READ | Tour group shares Hip Hop's rich history in New York City with global fans
Watch our half-hour special 'The Bronx and Beyond: 50 years of Hip Hop' airing on Eyewitness News at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, August 11, followed by a one-hour extended look on Channel 7 at 1 p.m. on Sunday, August 13. Both editions will be made available to stream on-demand at ABC7NY.com or our ABC7NY app on Roku, FireTV, Apple TV and Android TV.
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