I’d be under rightful scrutiny if I claimed I was listening to Magic’s Message at the time, nor would I make out that I was somehow tuning into The Rap Attack radio show which he started in ‘83 on New York’s WBLS-FM. I actually don’t think I even knew who he was until well into the 90’s when I heard records like the epic disco rap of “Potential” and the heavily sampled “Rappin With Mr Magic”. It was around this time I read an interview with KRS One pinpointing Mr Magic as the accidental instigator of the short lived but meme inducing Bridge Wars -- the Bronx vs Queens battle sparked by KRS dismantling MC Shan’s “The Bridge” and rebuilding it across the East River as “South Bronx”.

My 1st bridge wars purchase was “The Bridge Is Over” by BDP, with it’s unbridled disrobing of Roxanne Shante and further attacks on Shan & Marley Marl, it’s now bewildering to think that a guy from Connecticut started the whole thing. Back tracking a couple of years, BDP started life as The Celebrity Three then quickly became 12:41, it was in this incarnation that KRS went to see Mr Magic in the hope of some recognition for his Mantronix endorsed “$uccess Is The Word” which Magic instantly wrote off as wack. With Magic championing his assistant Marley Marl’s Juice Crew, a disgruntled KRS went straight home and penned South Bronx, dissecting and deriding the crew that up until that day he’d supposedly wanted to be a part of, and the rest is career affirming (and in some cases career destroying) history.

I’d considered compiling a bunch of youtube links to the original bridge battles but alas they’re not all up there, obviously I could have focussed on Mr Magic’s back catalog but you could always head over to Stones Throw and pick up their excellent The Third Unheard LP which features hard to find early tracks from Mr Magic and his Connecticut cohorts. In the meantime, what’s the word..?