Music fans are mourning the loss of rap pioneer Keith Keith, whose real name was Keith Caesar. A member of hip hop crew the Funky 4 + 1, Caesar passed away on Friday, August 21.
The Bronx rapper was 64 years old.
As New York News 12 reports, his family told the news outlet that his death had resulted from “medical complications.”
An ‘SNL’ First
Caesar and the other members of the Funky 4 + 1 made television history in 1981, when they became the first rap group to perform on “Saturday Night Live.”
Taking to the famed stage in Rockefeller Center’s Studio 8H for the Valentine’s Day episode, Funky 4 + 1 was introduced by Blondie singer Debbie Harry.
That history-making appearance marked the first time a rap crew performed on national television.
‘That’s the Joint’
Formed in the Bronx during the late 1970s, the Funky 4 + 1 grew to include Jazzy Jeff, DJ Breakout, Guy Williams, Keith Keith, The Voice of K.K., Rodney Cee and Sha-Rock, with the latter making rap history as the first female MC in a rap crew.
The group was catapulted to success courtesy of their propulsive single “That’s the Joint,” a rap interpretation of disco hit “Rescue Me” from A Taste of Honey.
The track caught the attention of renowned music critic Robert Christgau, who wrote a rave review for the Village Voice and listed “That’s the Joint” as his “personal best” of the 1980s.
Describing the song as “a real charmer” consisting of “16 minutes of fast talk over drum-dominated rhythms,” Christgau wrote, “The instrumental track, carried by Sugarhill bassist Doug Wimbish, is so compelling that for a while I listened to it alone on its B-side version. And the rapping is the peak of the form, not verbally — the debut has funnier words — but rhythmically. Quick tradeoffs and clamorous breaks vary the steady-flow rhyming of the individual MCs, and when it comes to Sha-Rock, Miss Plus One herself, who needs variation? I’m rooting for ‘Get the point? to join ‘Get down!’ in the fly lexicon.”
Paying Tribute to a ‘Legend and a Pioneer’
Rapper Vinnie Paz was among those to pay tribute to the late musician.
“Keith Caesar aka Keith Keith (Funky 4 + 1),” Paz wrote in a Facebook post. “Legend and pioneer. They were doing it in the parks and spots like the T-Connection before most people even knew what this [expletive] was. First hip-hop group to sign a record deal (Enjoy Records, 1979). Sha-Rock was the first woman MC in a prominent hip-hop group. first hip-hop group to perform live on national TV (Valentine’s Day 1981, ‘Saturday Night Live’). Helped push hip-hop out the Bronx and into the mainstream. The culture remembers the ones who built it.”
Also honoring Caesar was rap icon Grandmaster Flash, who paid tribute in a video he shared via Facebook.
“I do this video in sadness because one of our originators from the beginning of the culture Keith Caesar of the Funky 4 has passed away,” he said. “I’m really speechless at this point. I just recently seen him, and he was OK. The old saying, ‘Life is too short.’ You gotta love everyday that you can because you never know. Keith Caesar from the Funky 4, rest in peace. You will not be forgotten.”
