Line #7 Music/KoolMoeDee


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/89eec3e0d24053c526816efa0b2b592a.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Knowledge Is King.]]
3	Mohandas Dewese (born August 8, 1962 in New York City), better known as Kool Moe Dee, is one of the longest active rappers of all time, from 1976 to the present day, and one of the original pioneers of rap, alongside Music/GrandmasterFlashAndTheFuriousFive and the Music/TheSugarhillGang.
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5	Although Moe had been rapping since at least 1976, it was when he formed ''The Treacherous Three'' with Special K, DJ Easy Lee and Spoonie G (who would leave shortly after the formation and was replaced by L.A. Sunshine) in 1978 that he began attracting mainstream audiences. The group became well known for their singles "Body Rock", "Feel the Heart Beat" and "Action", and their song "The New Rap Language" earned Kool Moe Dee the distinction of inventing the "double time flow", which involved rapid sixteenth-note rhythms, with a lot of internal rhymes.
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7	On September 11, 1981, while still a part of the Three, Moe was featured in a [[https://youtu.be/am9C2_DZ7s4?t=422 very one-sided rap battle]] with Busy Bee Starski at Harlem World, taking everyone there by surprise by roasting Starski. Before that night, rap "battles" were based around playing to the crowd. Moe's roast of Starski had changed the face of the "battle rap" forever, laying the groundwork for many rap battle leagues and diss tracks in the years to follow. That same year, they moved over to Sugar Hill Records with Music/GrandmasterFlashAndTheFuriousFive. in 1984, they were featured in the movie ''Beat Street'' with Doug E. Fresh.
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9	In 1985, the Treacherous Three disbanded. Unlike the other members, who pursued solo careers, Moe finished school and attended the State University of New York at Old Westbury, where he received a degree in communications. The next year, he released his self titled solo album on Creator/JiveRecords. Backed by production from a then-16 year-old Teddy Riley (Who had produced the Gold-selling single [[Music/SlickRick "The Show"]] the same year Moe was in University), the album reached the eighty-third position on the ''Billboard 200''.
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11	in 1987, Kool Moe Dee became the instigator in a years-long feud with Music/LLCoolJ, whose album ''Bigger and Deffer'' went Double Platinum that year. Moe noted that LL had stolen his style of rapping, and did not show any appreciation of the rappers who paved the way for him, claiming to be "rap's new Grandmaster". This, along with his personal resentment of the fact that all of hip hop's founding fathers (excluding himself) were being ignored, would lead to the creation of ''How Ya Like Me Now''. Once again backed by Teddy Riley, Moe made his grievances known on the album cover, posing in front of a white Jeep crushing LL's signature Kangol hat on the cover. This would prove to be a success for Moe. ''How Ya Like Me Now'' went platinum and helped kickstart the NewJackSwing era alongside UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHipHop, churning out two hit singles: the title track and "Wild Wild West", which both hit the top 30 of the R&B charts.
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13	In 1988, LL Cool J retaliated to Moe's verbal attacks with "Jack the Ripper" a B-side from the single "Going Back to Cali", calling him a "punk" and "washed up". Moe, in turn, released his third album ''Knowledge Is King'' in 1989, which included the hidden track "Let's Go", a scathing response to the comments LL had made on "Jack the Ripper". Taking a brief break from the feud, Moe contributed vocals to Music/QuincyJones' album ''Back On The Block'' in 1990, alongside Music/IceT, Melle Mel, and Big Daddy Kane. This earned Moe his first and only Grammy Award, for "Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group". That same year, he appeared on "Self Destruction" alongside Music/PublicEnemy, Music/HeavyD, Music/KRSOne, and others as a part of the "Stop the Violence Movement".
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15	1991 saw the decline of Moe's career. His fourth album ''Funke Funke Wisdom'' bombed hard in the wake of LL Cool J's CareerResurrection with ''Mama Said Knock You Out''. Moe would be released from Jive Records a year later. A 1993 compilation release and a fourth album, ''Interlude'' did nothing to return him to his previous mainstream success. His last major song appearances were on Creator/WillSmith's 1999 single "Wild Wild West", where he re-recoreded the chorus from his own song of the same name, a featured spot on Music/{{Macklemore}} and Ryan Lewis' "Downtown", and a remix of "Where Are They Now" by {{Music/Nas}} in 2007.
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17	Currently, he hosts ''[=SpitFire=] with Kool Moe Dee'', an internet hip hop talk show.
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19	!!Discography:
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21	* ''Kool Moe Dee'' (1986)
22	* ''How Ya Like Me Now'' (1987)
23	* ''Knowledge Is King'' (1989)
24	* ''African Pride'' (EP, 1990)
25	* ''Back On The Block'' (1990, with Quincy Jones)
26	* ''Funke Funke Wisdom'' (1991)
27	* ''Interlude'' (1994)
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29	!!"But three days later, go see the Troper..."
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31	* AddedAlliterativeAppeal and AlliterativeList: [[https://youtu.be/Kw_I8l7XxwA?t=176 From what is considered one of the best diss verses of all time]]:
32	--> ''You got hands for tryna be me, now LL stands for''
33	--> ''Lower Level, Lack Luster''
34	--> ''Last Least, Limp Lover''
35	--> ''Lousy Lame, Latent Lethargic''
36	--> ''Lazy Lemon, Little Logic''
37	--> ''Lucky Leech, Liver Lipped''
38	--> ''Laborious Louse on a Loser's Lips''
39	--> ''Live in Limbo, Lyrical Lapse''
40	--> ''Low Life with the Loud Raps, boy''
41	** He pulls it off again in "Death Blow", but much less spetacularly.
42	* ArchEnemy: '''Music/LLCoolJ''', full stop. He also had a simmering beef with [[Music/RunDMC Run]] as well.
43	* BattleRapping: The TropeMaker for modern battle rapping.
44	* BodyHorror: The doctor's description of what would happen to Moe's manhood in "Go See the Doctor", if he refused to get treatment for his gonorrhea, glazed with a coating of BlackComedy:
45	---> ''He turned and said, in a real deep voice,\
46	"Have it your way, if that's your choice,\
47	And I'll put it down if you want me to put it.\
48	But don't blame me when it turns into a foot extended from the middle of your body.\
49	And the next time you see your cute hottie,\
50	You won't be able to screw, the only thing you can do is just kick her, so go take Karate!"''
51	* ConsciousHipHop
52	* {{Crossover}}: ''Back On the Block'' featured four rappers from two different eras (Moe and Melle Mel representing the original "old school", and Music/IceT and Big Daddy Kane representing the then-current [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHipHop "Golden Age"]]), plus Quincy Jones on the intro. "Birdland", from the same album, featured Moe and Kane rapping alongside trumpet solos from Music/MilesDavis and Dizzy Gillespie.
53	* CurbStompBattle: The 1981 Harlem World rap battle against Busy Bee Starski, as covered in TheRoast entry. ''Nobody'' expected Moe to flame Starski the way he did in that battle. It should be noted that, with the exception of performing a portion of "New Rap Language", Moe ''freestyled his verse entirely off the dome''; so he completely cooked Starski on the fly with minimal effort.
54	* AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted:
55	** "Dumb Dick" repeatedly notes this as a major flaw of the titular Dick, which goes hand-in-hand with his [[ReallyGetsAround uncontrollable libido]]. Despite initially having a good-paying job, and later having a stint as a drug dealer, Dick was prone to overspending on his various girlfriends, which leaves him with little money left for himself. Moe even points out that Dick's spending habits meant he could never make the money a successful dealer does. When he's finally both fired from his job ''and'' cut off by his drug suppliers, he goes flat broke, and his girlfriends quickly [[GoldDigger reveal their true colors]] and leave him.
56	** Moe references this on "Let's Go", warning LL Cool J that his continued shift into PopRap would result in him losing the fame and fortune he earned as his fans continued to turn his back on him. While LL's popularity ''was'' waning at the time of the song, [[{{Irony}} the tables would turn]] the very next year, with LL [[CareerResurrection revitalizing his career]], while Moe would plunge into relative obscurity.
57	* HardcoreHipHop: One of the old school's early architects of the sound, with boasts, battle raps, and hard hitting beats.
58	* NewJackSwing: One of the genere's earliest and most successful artists from 1986 to 1991.
59	* LastOfHisKind: Kool Moe Dee is the last of the original "old school" pioneers still making new material today.
60	* ReallyGetsAround: The main character of "Dumb Dick" is focused solely on banging every girl he gets. This eventually ruins his life, and [[spoiler:renders him broke and homeless from his careless lifestyle; reduced to chasing bag ladies.]]
61	* TheRival: Again, LL Cool J, and Run.
62	* TheRoast: [[https://youtu.be/am9C2_DZ7s4?t=422 the Harlem World freestyle roast of Busy Bee Starski]] that was the precursor to modern battle rapping.
63	* SlutShaming: Criticized on "I'm a Player", in which Moe Dee points out the double standard concerning promiscuous guys and promiscuous girls.
64	--> ''If a guy has a hundred girls, he's a hero''
65	--> ''A girl has a hundred guys, she's a zero''
66	--> ''Don't blame me, cause society made the rule''
67	--> ''But I think they made it for me''
68	* STDImmunity: "Go See the Doctor" was the first rap song to both avert and deconstruct it. Three days after having a one night stand with a girl without a condom, Moe finds out the hard way he caught gonorrhea from her, and is forced to go to a walk in clinic to get treatment.
69	--> ''Three days later...''
70	--> ''I woke up fussin', yellin' and cussin' ''
71	--> ''Drip-drip-drippin' and puss-puss-pussin' ''
72	--> ''I went to the bathroom and said''
73	-->'' "Mama mia, Imma ''kill'' that girl next time I see her!"''
74	** The main character of "Dumb Dick" also averts this, due to the character's [[ReallyGetsAround uber-promiscuity with women]]:
75	--> ''When it came to girls, he didn't care where he went''
76	--> ''He'd hound em like a dog, so we used to say "fetch!"''
77	--> ''[[DoubleEntendre And it was no tellin what he would catch]]''
78	--> ''He was in the doctor's office almost every week''
79	--> ''He became so popular, everybody'd speak''
80	--> ''When he walked in they'd say (Hi Rick)''
81	--> ''And when he passed by, they'd say (Dumb Dick)''
82	* TakeThat: All towards LL Cool J: "How Ya Like Me Now", "Let's Go", and "Death Blow". Hell "Bad Mutha" took shots at LL (as well as Music/SlickRick and a few others), and that was ''a year before'' their beef started.
83	** "Deez Nutz" from ''Interlude'' contains a not-so-subtle diss to Music/DrDre and Music/SnoopDogg's "Nuthin' But a G Thang".
84	** And of course, the [[CurbStompBattle freestyle battle rap/roast]] he performed against Busy Bee Starski.
85	* TechnicianVersusPerformer: One of the big differences between him and LL were their skills and stage presence. While LL was no slouch, Moe Dee was the more technically sound rapper, while LL's charisma was leagues above Moe's, and allowed him to survive well into the 2020s, while Moe's career died during the gangsta rap boom.
86	* TooDumbToLive: The main subject of "Dumb Dick", who would rather spend his time chasing girls than actually take care of himself. Eventually, [[spoiler: he winds up homeless due to his poor decisions. Though that still doesn't stop him from chasing women...]]
87	* UrExample: The first modern battle rapper.
88	* WarriorPoet: The first in rap.

Context Music / KoolMoeDee