The Treacherous Three

Anyone that has seen, owns or is aware of  Graffiti Rock knows it is spoofed by Gnarlz Barkley and Justin Timberlake for the Run video.

Graffiti Rock contains an early appearance of rap legends Run-DMC. In addition to performing, Run-DMC battle another legendary New York hip hop trio. For the sake of this post, the focus will be on The Treacherous Three.



I still have a good deal of homework to do where the foundation years of late 1970s to early 1980s hip hop are concerned.


Just as there is now a generation that knows nothing of Kool Moe Dee, I know little of his Treacherous Three era colleagues. I am fortunate to say I know of Kool Moe Dee’s music. I owned, listened and played most of his solo albums. I learned he was part of a group years afterwards. Watching him alongside Special K taking on Run-DMC was not only entertaining but informative.

As much as I would love to, I can’t own every album I want. On many an occasion I have browsed past a The Treacherous Three album reissue while digging for records. I presume it to be the ultimate Treacherous Three album with Heartbeat and Body Rock.

I had seen the Santa's Rap sequence in Beat Street at the time of its release but because hip hop culture was so new to me, I didn't know the name of the crew performing the song.  I barely pieced together Kool Moe Dee was the primary MC on the screen. 




It is amazing how we are presented with information long before we would understand its meaning and eventual impact on us.  In this case, my reminder about Kool Moe Dee & The Treacherous Three was in the form of the material being presented to me full circle.  
It took my seeing the classic footage of Graffiti Rock to remind me that I should look into Treacherous Three which, luckily for me, I had been exposed to long before I knew it.  Thankfully, YouTube allows us to see and hear their sounds.

Let this serve as your reminder to revisit The Treacherous Three's records.