Forty years after DJ Kool Herc set it off at the iconic 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in The Bronx, Hip-Hop is 40 years old. Happy Birthday to You!
We’re taking you back, way back, today with some very early joints in a tribute to the founders of Hip-Hop with much respect.
Dig the 1979 track by Fatback Band and King Tim III, titled “King Tim III (Personality Jock),” widely considered to be the first pressed Hip-Hop track, predating “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang:
While the Fatback joint is the first “pressed” Hip-Hop record, Hip-Hop was being made live and direct at parties and clubs for years across New York City prior to it’s packaging for the masses in the late 1970s.
As the decades have passed and the music has changed as a result of societal changes and new innovations in beat-making and genre-blending, you can still find the classic Hip-Hop set up all over the world; often including the Four Elements of a DJ/producer, an MC, Bboys and Bgirls, all on a backdrop of graffiti art and a city skyline.
We also speak about a fifth element of “Knowledge” to accompany the original Four Elements articulated by Afrika Bambaataa, and a frequent criticism of the music today that’s categorized by the mainstream as “Hip-Hop” is that the element of knowledge is often absent, replaced by gratification of violence, degradation of women, and idolatry of wealth.
It’s important in light of this criticism to acknowledge that early/original Hip-Hop was often positive, steadily innovative, and most importantly about having a good time.
Drawing off the mixed emotional energies running the spectrum from melancholy Blues to exuberant Disco, and using dynamic vocal call-and-response techniques over live-looped breaks from dual turntables, this movement was bound to excite parties around the world, bringing together people of all backgrounds.
Influences like James Brown, Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, and the Jamaican roots of verbal “rapping” combined in a maelstrom with innovators like Kool Herc, Grand Wizzard Theodore, DJ Hollywood, and many more crucial individuals and groups to form this purely original art form that’s rounded the planet constantly for 40 years.
The founding fathers, pioneers, and prophets of the movement can still be found shutting it down around the world, and true fans can listen and learn with simply an Internet connection from any location, and in any language.
We were thrilled to be able to hang with and hear Afrika Bambaataa playing a set at the Zulu Nation Miami Chapter’s 20th anniversary earlier this summer, and to be a part of this 40-year-old energy that still has the power to bring people from all backgrounds together with the purposes of Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun.
Along with our Bboy Sound of the Day, ” King Tim III”, check out some tracks of live performances and rare vinyls from the early days of Hip-Hop:
DJ Hollywood & LoveBug Starski Live at The Armory, 1979:
Cold Crush Brothers Live at Harlem World, 1981:
Also, do yourselves a favor and take some time to view the 2012 Documentary “Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap” and learn some history:
