Before the world met him as Moby, the bald, genre-bending producer behind “Play,” Richard Melville Hall was a New York kid with a record bag and a profound appreciation for music in all its elemental, burgeoning forms. As genres collided and the nights stretched on in “the smoky clubs of the late ‘80s,” Moby became a witness and participant in one of the most electric periods of the history of music.
Moby took a sentimental stroll through memory lane, discussing his early DJ years in NYC and the first time he saw one of Hip-Hop’s legends: Big Daddy Kane.
“It was like seeing royalty,” Moby remembered, with the reverence one usually reserves for saints or heads of state. Kane walked in when he was spinning a set on the second floor of Club Mars in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District place that had become a hangout for creatives, club kids, and soon-to-be stars.
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“There was no one bigger than him.” “When he walked in with that fade, that phenomenal suit and everything else, it was like we had the Pope walking through the room.”
Even from his secure perch in the DJ booth, its memory remains for Moby filmic in its clarity: Kane, standing behind the bar, a glass of champagne glinting, his crew, crackling with energy and roaring charisma, at his side, dressed as though he owned the night. At that instant, Moby understood that he wasn’t just seeing a rapper, but he was witnessing a movement. “Ultramagnetic MCs, Run-DMC, Rakim, and De La Soul were all great people,” he added, “but nobody was more regal during that time than Kane.”
Moby’s admiration for Hip-Hop is more than one starstruck story deep. Though he’s best known for ambient beats and soulful electronica, Moby was very much a mix-everything-in DJ. “To be a working DJ back then, you had to like everything,” he said. “Dancehall, soul, house, Hip-Hop, you played what danced the room. It was exciting because it was the dawn of these genres; even house music was an infant at 2.
His influences, however, are rooted in the golden age of Hip-Hop itself: Eric B. & Rakim, Public Enemy, and, yes, Kane. He even collaborated with Chuck D for 2004’s “Make Love F### War,” a hard-rocking protest song that Moby rediscovered and praised. “I hadn’t heard it in a long time, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is pretty good.’ ”
Now, decades later, Moby’s legacy is as multifaceted as his DJ sets. His relaunched moby gratis site allows fans and creators to adapt almost 2,000 tracks from his catalog. It’s an appropriate gesture from an artist who’s always believed in shared inspiration.
But that night at Club Mars, when Big Daddy Kane transformed a club of sin into a cathedral? It was a pure moment in hip-hop history, and Moby was fortunate enough to hit play.
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