I was mainly into flatland (or "freestyle" as we called it bitd ) So for me old school rap was the my favorite. RUN DMC, LL COOL J, BEASTIE BOYS, KURTIS BLOW, KOOL MOE DEE, etc. But when we wanted to stretch out a run, or just really want to show off at the local shopping mall, lol. The BEASTIE BOYS were the way to go! Nothing like Paul Revere, No Sleep Til Brooklyn, Brass Monkey, etc!

Kick Start by MOTLEY CRUE was great to listen to on ramps!

80's - Run DMC, ICE T, NWA, LL Cool J, Public Enemy.

90's- TOOL "Undertow" , Alice in Chains "Dirt" , Stone Temple Pilots "Core" , Pearl Jam "Ten"

My selection in late 80's/early 90's:
EPMD, Ninja Man, Primus, Violent Femmes, Häiriköt (friend's punk rock band), Klamydia, Cypress Hill, Kraftwerk
..and a lot of HARD, EUROPEAN TECHNO & ACID of the time like Holographic, Mescalinum United, Rotterdam Termination Source, LFO, Biochip C., Brainstorm, Humanoid, Spicelab, Colone aka Rob Acid, Microbots, Aphex Twin.. too many to list but this should give you the general idea.

I'm still into that stuff.

STP, Pearl Jam, Alice n Chains, Motley, Slayer, Megadeth, Metalica or anything HEAVY!!!!!

BITD I used to ride to Ozzy Osbourne, DIO, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Twisted Sister, RATT, Venom, TSOL and even Captain Beefheart for a bit of fun.

STP Core is without a doubt the best album to come out of the 90's. Dare you say different?

Pretty much dead on of what we would listen to.Definately Beastie Boys.


Rob

84-85: Motley Crue, Scorpions, Def Leppard, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Van Halen, Ratt, Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, 1st Cinderalla

86-90: Metallica, Megadeth, Metal Church, Anthrax, Testament, Overkill, Iron Maiden, Sepultura, Sacred Reich, MOD, SOD, DRI, Death Angel, Flotsam & Jetsam, Exodus, Slayer, Nuclear Assault, Joe Satriani, Laaz Rockit, Znowhite, Suicidal Tendencies, Ozzy, Dio, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Powermad, Queensrche, King Diamond, Venom, early Kiss, early Celtic Frost, Yngwie

I was pretty much done riding by '91.

Hmmmm
Music was pretty much done about that same time...

This summs it up pretty good right there.

The Art of Noise
Sigue Sigue Sputnik
Rush
Pet Shop Boys
Motley Crue (Shout at the Devil only)
Yello
Beastie Boys
LL Cool J
Public Enemy
Judas Priest
Boogie Down Productions
3rd Bass
Iron Maiden

That's all I can remember right off hand.

Yeah, I just about wore out "License to Ill" by the Beasties and "Raising Hell" by Run-DMC.
And yeah, that goes for most of the rest that's been listed, too.

Some others I haven't seen mentioned yet:

The Cure
Billy Idol
REM
Big Daddy Kane
New Order
Erik B. and Rakim
Prince - Purple Rain Soundtrack

Metallica
Black Flag
Suicidal Tendencies
Any 80's rap (usually taped off the radio!!)
The ending music from the movie RAD

Lots of Beastie Boys, but my list wouldn't be complete without Faster Pussycat...

We did a lot of riding from spot to spot, and because we didn't have that fancy gadget that Dennis McCoy advertised BITD (looked like a boom box strapped to the handlebars), we couldn't take our boom boxes with us. So I'm not sure we rode to much music other than what was playing in other people's cars in the parking lots or on other people's radios on the basketball/tennis courts. Looking back, that would have been a lot of rap -- Public Enemy, BDP, Rob Base, Erik B and Rakim (got my screen name from them, if you're wondering), Kool Moe, etc.

On those rare occasions we actually had our own music, seems Fishbone and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were popular. Also, my friend Sean (the original Chilli Peppers fan) was really into U2.

Seems they used to advertise Husker Du in Freestylin' all the time, and I always remember seeing the ads and wondering what the heck they were about, but I don't think I got into them until college and beyond. (Really missed out -- Bob Mould rules!)

Loverboy, Triumph, Judas Priest, Motley Cru, Def Lepord and Whodini.

X

I actually had this giant, square boom-box that had a tape deck and also had a record player that would slide open from the bottom. That thing rocked! I would carry it while I was riding, lol. When we got to wherever we were going I'd just set it down and blast it! lol. Rap was considered a fad back then so it was great to see everyones faces when we would be blasting some RUN DMC "Rock Box" or "King of Rock" at some shopping center, lol...I guess u could say mine was the ghetto tune tote! lol.

I rode to mantronix in full effect album, public enemy, boogie down productions, and lol surf mc's i liked the song "that's cali for ya"

Hah Surf MC's, I have that album, very nice.

After reading a few replies, I completely forgot to mention:
U2
Billy Idol
The Cure

We used to make compilation tapes all the time and ride to those. Mostly punk/hardcore or metal, but a couple friends got into rap too, so there was some of that later on. Some bands I remember putting on my tapes,

Black Flag, Descendents, Life Sentence, DRI, Agnostic Front, Gang Green, Suicidal Tendencies, Misfits, Sex Pistols, The Business, Dayglo Abortions, MDC, Social Distortion, Poison Idea, Cro-Mags, Naked Raygun, Fear, Vandals, Minor Threat.

Mostly early-mid 80's U.S. hardcore. I'd sometimes put a Go-Go's song in there too because I was totally into them. Other than a few other bands like the Business, Broken Bones, Exploited, GBH etc, I wasn't too into a lot of the early british punk stuff. I did get really into that a couple years later, but when I was riding I always wanted something faster.

Some metal we rode to: SLAYER, Metallica's first few, Quiet Riot was fun, Destruction, Death, Motorhead, stuff like that. About 89-90 I got really into death metal, and what we called noise-core, bands like Napalm Death, Doom, Sore Throat, Extreme Noise Terror. More political in the lyrics but still growling and screeching vocals and super-fast music.

I'm still into all of this stuff and this makes me want to go home and make a new CD comp now. I think I'll start making a playlist.

(I just reminded myself of this pic I have uploaded. A few friends with a couple guys from Napalm Death, maybe 90-91? Outside of Medusa's in Chicago before a show. Fun times!!!)

Oh, our poor neighbors. My riding buddy had a HUGE stereo system (he loved all that electronic stuff and blew almost as much money on that as he did on bmx) and he'd wire his speakers and run them out my front window and we'd just blast the music all day long.

A sampling of what we tortured the neighborhood with:

The Fixx
Duran Duran
The Police
U2
INXS
The Cure
The Cars
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
The Alarm

Etc, etc.

I vividly remember listening to Ratt's 'Lay it down' when it first came out. We would replay it over and over as we were hitting the quarter pipe, trying to get the flatest/most inverted table top we possibly could.
Circa 1985.

I was into:
U2
The Police
The Outfield
Van Halen
Oingo Boingo
Tom Petty
Toto
Duran Duran
Def Lepard

I still listen to those bands on my iPod all of the time. I remeber when I was a kid my father would wear me out wth the oldies, now I wear my kid out with the 80's oldies. Ha-Ha.