1. “Rap is something you do, Hip Hop is something you live”~ KRS-One
Herc & The Bronx B-Boys
“Rap is something you do, Hip Hop is something you live”~ KRS-One

2. Hip Hop Manifests via... Postindustrialization
Communication and Expression/style
(re)Claiming space
Appropriation of text and technology
Social justice
Class and racial inequities
Lack of resources, structural racism, etc.
Youth identity formation, given a purpose/voice “we are here, we have something to give to the world”
Opposition to dominant culture (subculture?)
Anti-Disco?
Competition

3. The 4(ish) Elements DJing Breaking=physical manifestation of hip hop
Bombing/Writing=communication through NYC...subways and trains as SCREENS
Pre-existed hip hop (1967, Cornbread from Philly), but absorbed into it
Emceeing
Beatboxing, Fashion, Business, Vernacular?

4. Could hip hop music exist before hip hop culture?

5. Caribbean Influence Adaptation of soul Jamaican Sound System
Sound Clash
Dub Music=Version
Toasting=Rap
Selectah=DJ
DJ=MC
Musical ownership

6. Hebdige Sound system= feedback loop w/ audience
“And it is at the sound system that the barrier between the fans and stars is least noticeable” (Hebdige p. 88)
The “original version takes on new life and meaning in a fresh context…. Everybody has a chance to make a contribution. And no one's version is treated as Holy Writ” (Hebdige p. 14)

7. Other Influences

8. Rose Hip hop is a bi-product of: Hip hop is about: Deindustrialization
Gentrification/Urban Renewal
City (near) bankruptcy
Class gaps
Limited means
Hip hop is about:
Fame/Status, Style/Identity, Appropriation/Critique Via Style, Turf, Competition

9. DJ Kool Herc Father of Hip Hop From Kingston
Brought sound clash/system aesthetics to urban America and flipped it
Gave “jams”, first one Aug. 11, 1973 at Sedgwick Ave (Cedar Park)
“Merry go round” technique using the break or “get down” part of a record

10. Herc Cont'd Herculoids=Herc's crew Became biggest DJ in Bronx
Known for his powerful system, the Herculords
DJs battled for territories
1974 ish, Coke La Rock grabs the mic
^First Emcee

11. Park Jams

12. B-Boys=Break Boys
Amongst many things Herc is credited as first to: 1) isolate the break 2) use two copies of the same record to create a loop 3) dig for non-pop records
^^^the foundation of hip hop aesthetics^^^
“Simply by being so bold as to make previous musical history the material of his own creation, Herc made the DJ an author, the originator…he freed music from its old context and integrated it within the ‘process of composition’” (Poschardt 1998, p.163)

13. “Hip hop has always been articulated via commodities and engaged in the revision of meanings attached to them.” (Rose 1994, p. 41)

14. Importance of what Herc did?
Changed how we listen to music (or were supposed to)
Brought out the energy of the break, and began to isolate it for the dancers
Found raw, edgy, and non-mainstream music, often with long Latin percussive elements in the break
Collectively identified as the “inventor” of hip hop

15. The Breakbeats
“All of them was sitting in your house—they were all your mom's old and pop's old records,” says pioneering DJ Jazzy Jay, “Soon as Kool Herc started playing, every motherfucker started robbing his mother and father for records”

16. Herc's Breakbeats “Give it Up, Turn it Loose” (1970) “Apache” (1973)
“Bongo Rock” (1973)
“The Mexican” (1972)
“Scorpio” (1971)
“It's Just Begun” (1972)

17. Hip hop takes all other types of music (and culture) and MAKES it hip hop!!!
It reinvents the past and reinvents ways of doing things to be original and have a unique style!!!

18. Rose Cont'd
“Hip hop remains a never-ending battle for status, prestige, and group adoration, always in formation, always contested, and never fully achieved” (p. 36)
Hip Hop's stylistic continuities:
1) FLOW
2) Layering
3) Ruptures in line

20. Hip Hop Years Pt. 1 How was hip hop also anti-disco?
What is the Zulu Nation?
Why didn't DJs let other DJs know their beats?
Beyond exclusive beats and sound system loudness, how did DJ battles evolve into skills- based competition?
How did emceeing evolve within hip hop?

21. Afrika Bambaataa Former Black Spade Started the Universal Zulu Nation
“Master of Records” and “Godfather” of hip hop
First DJ to get accepted in the “downtown” new wave/punk scene
First to call all 4 elements “hip hop”

22. Grandmaster Flash Innovator and “inventor” of techniques
Retrofitting technology
Musical collage through “cutting” 2 of the same records
(re)Composition

23. NYC Blackout of '77 NY77: The Coolest Year in Hell
Most of NYC has no power for one day
Significant for 2 reasons to hip hop:
1) It brought a TON of media attention, mostly negative, to the South Bronx
This attention would eventually shine on hip hop
2) Much of the looting happened at stereo stores and clubs. Within days there were new DJ/MC crews with nice equipment
DEMOCRACY because of ACCESS!!!