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Rose Award "Best Disco Group", 1st Place, Awarded to The Funky 4+1
Recipient
Funky 4+1
Associated name
Arthur Armstrong
Date1979
Mediumplastic; marble
DimensionsOverall (HWD): 12 3/16 × 4 15/16 × 2 3/8 in. (30.956 × 12.541 × 6.033 cm)
Credit LineMoPOP permanent collection
Object number1999.123.12
Text EntriesFunky 4+1 More 1st place trophy for Best Disco Group at the Rose Awards.
In 1979, hip-hop group Funky 4+1 More won 1st place for Best Disco Group at the Rose Awards. The Rose Awards was the first local competition for hip-hop music. The event took place at Armstrong's Galaxy 500, located in the Bronx, NY. In the tradition of competitions held at New York's Apollo Theatre, the trophies were given to the act that received the most applause. Trophies were awarded in other categories as well, such as Best DJ, Best Dancer, and Best Flier.
Funky 4+1 More included K.K. Rockwell (Kevin Smith, birthdate unknown), Sha-Rock (Sharon Green, b. 1962), Keith Keith (Keith Caesar, birthdate unknown), Rahiem (Guy Todd Wiliams, birthdate unknown) until 1979 when he left to join Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Lil’ Rodney C (Rodney Stone, birthdate unknown), MC Jazzy Jeff (Jeff Miree, b. 1962) D.J. Baron (Baron Chappell, birthdate unknown) and D.J. Breakout (Keith Williams, birthdate unknown).
The Funky 4+1 More is considered a legendary hip-hop group emerging out of the South Bronx, forming at the end of the disco era in 1978. Funky 4+1 More was one of first battle groups, the first rap group to have a female MC, the first rap group to be signed by a major record label, and the first rap group to perform live on national television (performing ‘That’s the Joint’ on Saturday Night Live, February 1981). Their debut single was the 15-min track “Rappin and Rocking the House” released in 1979, which was the same year they signed with Enjoy Records for three months, then signed with Sugar Hill Records where they released “That’s the Joint” in 1980. In 1979 Rahiem left the group to join Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, then in 1981 Lil Rodney C and KK Rockwell left to form a duo called Double Trouble. In 1983, Sha-Rock formed US Girls with Debbie D and Lisa Lee.
White marble, faded gold, and blue trophy. Two musical notes and staff are on top of trophy and a small three- dimensional eagle sits on the bottom right of trophy. Trophy has the year 1979 in black letters over a gold plate on top of a blue background. Trophy reads, “Rose Award Best Disco Group, 1st Place” in white letters on a blue plate.
CopyrightThis work is issued under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License. For more information, go to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
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