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Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine, about the hits from

coast to coast.

I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why Is This Song Number One series?

On today's show, at the Grammys this year, many of the most compelling performances came from the world of hip-hop.

From Kendrick Lamar,

To new rap starair nothing, I'd rather done it to listen to you. My DNA not for imitation.

To new rap star, Cardi B, supporting the night's biggest Grammy winner, Bruno Mars.

Even if hip-hop didn't walk away with any of the night's biggest trophies, which mostly went to pop singers like Mars and Ed Shearin, not rappers like Lamar, rap in the 2010s is the undisputed top genre in all of recorded music.

Just last year, 2017, the hip-hop and R&B genre accounted

for one quarter of all music consumed in America. That's remarkable for an art form that

didn't exist as a recorded medium 40 years ago, started as street music, and was long seen as a fad.

When rap historians are asked about the greatest moments in hip-hop history, they will often

point not just to classic artists, but classic eras, like sports fans who recall the 69

Mets or the 78 Steelers or the 96 Bulls.

Rap fans tend to organize hip-hop history not just around pivotal players, but pivotal years.

For example, raps widely agreed upon golden era usually starts around 1988,

marked by such Hall of Famers as Public Enemy and NWA.

And the classic era continues through 1994, another pivotal year, dominated by the likes of Nas, Tupac, and the notorious B.I.G.

But one pivotal year for rap that sometimes goes unmentioned is 1986.

If, like me, you are a fan of the pop charts, you might call it ground zero for rap's dominance of popular music as we know it today.

And the key hit from that year, which is anything but underrated, is this one. Schoolgirls sleazy with a classic kind of sassy, little skirt hanging way up for knee. It was three young ladies in a school gym, like an end in a fine that were looking at D. I was a high school loser. Never made it with a lady. Tell me something to miss. Get my next stop. Neighbor. How did I have a favor? loser Never made it with a lady Tell me something A miss That's the rap

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