# Looking for a proto-Hip Hop piece **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431 "2014-04-18T18:23:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/1 "2014-04-18T18:23:41Z")
Some years ago, I stumbled upon an interesting video of a comedy skit which was very close to early Hip Hop from about 1980, but actually was from the late sixties/early seventies. I’m quite sure that it pictured a trial, with the guy doing the rapping embodying judge soandso. It was somewhere cited as an example of pre-Hip Hop, but I can’t find it now. I’m counting on you, guys and gals. ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/2 "2014-04-18T18:35:46Z")
Was it Dewey ‘Pigmeat’ Markham, “Here Comes the Judge”? [Video on Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hIcKkKID8k&feature=kp) ---
**Author:** ![cstamets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@cstamets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cstamets)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/3 "2014-04-18T18:37:04Z")
Didn’t find a video, but is this the song? [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DvMBxlu62c0/hqdefault.jpg "Pigmeat Markham - Here Comes The Judge + The Trial - 1968 45rpm") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvMBxlu62c0) ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/4 "2014-04-18T18:38:44Z")
Don’t forget Bull and the MAtadors [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/4isYNZqOUxw/hqdefault.jpg "Bull & The Matadors - The Funky Judge") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4isYNZqOUxw) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/5 "2014-04-18T18:43:13Z")
> [@xnylder](#): > > Was it Dewey ‘Pigmeat’ Markham, “Here Comes the Judge”? > > [Video on Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hIcKkKID8k&feature=kp) [quote=“cstamets, post:3, topic:686431”] Didn’t find a video, but is this the song? [/QUOTE] This seems to ring a bell, but unfortunately the first video is only 13 seconds, and the second is “not available in my country”. I’ll look into it. ---
**Author:** ![cstamets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@cstamets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cstamets)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/6 "2014-04-18T18:46:46Z")
Here’s another version - [Pigmeat Markham - Here Comes the Judge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvPkWwXIVhk) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/7 "2014-04-18T18:48:18Z")
Found [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvPkWwXIVhk). Yeah, that’s it (Here comes the Judge). Thanks. Edit: **cstamets** was faster. ---
**Author:** ![cstamets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@cstamets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cstamets)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/8 "2014-04-18T18:53:20Z")
Looking into it further, Pigmeat was on the Ed Sullivan show, and he, Sammy Davis, Jr. , and Flip Wilson all performed the skit or variations on Laugh-In (which is where I was remembering it from). Might have been any of those you saw, but I can’t find a video online. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/9 "2014-04-18T18:58:18Z")
It’s ok, I don’t have to find the original video I saw, I was merely looking for the song. Btw., that was Sammy Davis Jr. in the video **xnylder** linked to, wasn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![cstamets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@cstamets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cstamets)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/10 "2014-04-18T19:14:36Z")
It was. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/11 "2014-04-18T19:21:56Z")
Thought so, but he had a funny hairdo. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/12 "2014-04-18T19:22:28Z")
True. I forgot that Sammy Davis Jr. incorporated some of Pigmeat’s act into his own. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/13 "2014-04-18T19:33:55Z")
Was this skit stylistically unique for those times, or were there more examples of “Hip Hop” done then? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/14 "2014-04-18T19:34:11Z")
> [@xnylder](#): > > Dewey ‘Pigmeat’ Markham Whose birthday it happens to be today–born in 1904. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/15 "2014-04-18T19:57:38Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Was this skit stylistically unique for those times, or were there more examples of “Hip Hop” done then? I always thought that [this 1968 track](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqrCIXBhLbY) by Eric Burdon & the Animals sounded remarkably close to the rap of 20 years later. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-proto-hip-hop-piece/686431/16 "2014-04-18T20:09:29Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > I always thought that [this 1968 track](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqrCIXBhLbY) by Eric Burdon & the Animals sounded remarkably close to the rap of 20 years later. Wow, great track I’d never heard before; and from Eric Burdon, of all people, the guy who wanted so hard to be black.