... student who would bring a boombox and blast out rap music (on cassette of course). I only remember the stuff he played was really, really hardcore, as in, not melodic at all. I wouldn't call it hip hop either. It was really just voice and hard driving percussion. Years later my guess was that this had been the equivalent of independent labels, pre-commercial rap or non-commercial rap. Whenever I do a search for early hardcore rap, though, I get the same mainstream or at least now well-known names like Mambata or Grandmaster Flash, but that wasn't it. I'm wondering if anybody has an idea of what artists these might have been that he was listening to at the time. (it was a small rural community in Missouri, USA, btw)