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By Ray Robinson\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
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Photos by Louie Moore<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n Long live the legend, the sound, the lure and the legacy of Hip-Hop. It\u2019s been 50 long, hard-fought years, defending, creating and being credited (or not credited) for igniting one of the biggest revenue-generating styles of music to date.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hip-Hop Hooray\u2026Hooooo\u2026Heeeeey\u2026Hooooo !\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And just imagine. It all started from scratch.<\/span><\/p>\n As legend, lore and street stories will tell you, there was a cat named Kool Herc who made a name for himself as a masterful minister of the mix in the Bronx during the early to mid-70\u2019s. Setting up his sound systems in project courtyards and on neighborhood basketball courts, Kool Herc, born Clive Campbell, realized that he could control the crowd with his wizardry on the turntables. And the mic.<\/span><\/p>\n One of his exercises that he created was to isolate the drum parts of a song where the drummer is featured for several measures. He would then get two copies of the exact same record and then play those measures back-to-back on both tables which elongates that portion of the song. Campbell called this little trick the “Merry-Go-Round. We all know now that his “little trick” later became better known as a \u201cbreak-beat\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n From the break-beat came the funky antics and slippery as satin dance moves of the top local hoofers who were known as \u201cbreak dancers\u201d. These dance stylists put every genre of dance into this new form of body rocking. From the \u201cElectric Boogaloo\u201d to the shim shimmy of \u201cPop-Locking\u201d everyone took to the sound of the drum like the children who left the city of Hamblin with the Pied Piper.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, you can\u2019t go through 50 years of the sound without discussing Grand Wizard Theodore, who is the originator of the cut and scratch. Scratching is the magnetic sound made when a record is rubbed back and forth. This scratching sound permeated the landscape of hip-hop taking a bunch of songs to the top of the charts because of its infectious vibration. Static electricity never felt or sounded so good.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Legend has it that Theodore, named Theodore Livingston, found the sound by accident when he placed his hand on the record to stop it from playing to hear what his mother was saying. Thank goodness for mom\u2019s <\/span>constantly<\/span><\/i> calling you about one thing or another.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yes indeed, this music was intoxicating. Even to the point where almost every product sold on the market today has added some form of hip-hop culture to their marketing scheme. It wasn\u2019t more apparent than when Post Holdings, the makers of Fruity Pebbles, created a campaign in which Barney Rubble donned a black fedora, a gold chain, several rings, sneakers and a pair of\u00a0 fly sunglasses in order to trick Fred Flintstone out of his tasty Fruity Pebbles. Not only is Barney\u2019s drip a straight homage to rap\u2019s kings, Run DMC, Barney also spits some nice lyrics to help push the ads message even further. If you eat Fruity Pebbles, you\u2019ll be hip.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Campbell and Theordore\u2019s style reverberated throughout the 5 boroughs of New York with the force of a Category 5 hurricane bold enough to crumble dilapidated buildings in a split second. The sound was so huge that it couldn\u2019t be contained and now 50 years later, Hip-Hop takes a bow as it not only transcended the 5 boroughs…it took over the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Like everything else that sparkles in the sun, there have been those dark moments that take away from the spit-polished shine that we see on television, in movies, on music videos and that we read about in the trade magazines. Remember, there was the East Coast Vs. West Coast fiasco that ended up costing two of the best rappers ever, Tupac and The Notorious BIG their lives. A bunch of rap artists have died while living out the life that they glorified on their creative canvases.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How many of these successful artists have still ended up behind bars for extensive prison sentences AFTER having amassed massive wealth ? Even still, there are the rags-to-riches-to rags stories littered all over the landscape of Hip-Hop. We all know the tales of MC Hammer, The Sugar Hill Gang and a myriad of others whose financial futures were torn away from them by unscrupulous managers, record executives or so-called friends. Imagine if it never happened at all. Where would we be ? What if GrandMaster Flash and the Furious Five never delivered \u201cThe Message\u201d ? I just can\u2019t think of how we would have got from place to place if Run DMC didn\u2019t tell us to, \u201cWalk This Way\u201d ? And, worse yet…how in the hell would we have ever gotten to sleep if it weren\u2019t for Slick Rick\u2019s all-time favorite rhyming lullaby, \u201cChildren\u2019s Story\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yes. Hip-Hop history and culture is rife with tales of failure, pain and unfortunately at times, even death. Still, there were plenty of success stories as the various Grammy, MTV and AMA Awards surely attest to that.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Still, you\u2019ve gotta remember. IT ALL STARTED FROM SCRATCH.<\/span><\/p>\n Word !<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ray Robinson\u00a0 Photos by Louie Moore Long live the legend, the sound, the lure and the legacy of Hip-Hop. It\u2019s been 50 long, hard-fought years, defending, creating and being credited (or not credited) for igniting one of the biggest revenue-generating styles of music to date.\u00a0 Hip-Hop Hooray\u2026Hooooo\u2026Heeeeey\u2026Hooooo !\u00a0 And just imagine. It all … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neighborhoodmedia.org\/metrourbannews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/20230629_164930-300x169.jpg\")
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