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The Birth of Hip Hop - part 1 of our 3 part series

The Birth of Hip Hop took place during the 1970s when block parties became increasingly popular in New York, especially in the Bronx. Block parties incorporated DJs who played popular genres of music, especially soul music and funk. DJs, realizing its positive reception, began isolating the percussion breaks of popular songs. This technique was then common in Jamaican dub music and had spread to New York City via the substantial Jamaican immigrant community. A major proponent of the technique was the "godfather" of hip hop, the Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc.

Dub music, popular in Jamaica due to the influence of American sailors love for the Rhythm & Blues. Large sound systems were set up to accommodate poor Jamaicans who couldn't afford to buy records and dub developed at the sound systems. DJ Kool Herc became one of the most popular DJs in New York in the 1970s, after immigrating to the United States from Jamaica in 1967. Because the New York audience did not particularly like dub or reggae, Herc quickly made a transition to using funk, disco and soul records. Due to the fact that the percussive breaks were generally short, Herc and other DJs began extending them using audio mixers and two records.



Turntables techniques, such as beat mixing/matching, scratching where started by Bronx DJ Grand Wizard Theodore and beat juggling eventually developed along with the breaks, creating a base that could be rapped over. These techniques contributed to the popularization of remixes. Such looping, sampling and remixing of another's music, sometimes without the original artist's knowledge or consent, can be seen as an evolution of Jamaican dub music, and would become a hallmark of the hip hop style.

Jamaican DJ/MC also provided a strong influence on the vocal style of rapping by delivering simple raps at their parties, inspired by the Jamaican tradition of toasting. DJs and MCs would often add call and response chants, often comprising of a basic chorus, to allow the performer to gather his thoughts (e.g. "one, two, three, y'all, to the beat").

MCs grew more varied in their vocal and rhythmic approach, incorporating brief rhymes, often with a sexual or scatological theme, in an effort at differentiating themselves and entertaining the audience. Hip hop music was an outlet and a "voice" for disenfranchised youth as the culture reflected the social, economic and political realities of their lives. Kool Herc & the Herculoids were the first hip hoppers to gain major fame in New York, but the number of MC teams increased over time. Most often these were collaborations between former gangs, such as Afrikaa Bambaataa's Universal Zulu Nation - now a large, international organization. Melle Mel, a rapper/lyricist with The Furious Five is often credited with being the first rap lyricist to call himself an "MC."During the early 1970s break dancing arose during block parties, as b-boys and b-girls got in front of the audience to dance in a distinctive and frenetic style.

Even though there were many early MCs that recorded solo projects of note, such as Kurtis Blow, Spoonie Gee, and DJ Hollywood, the frequency of solo artists didn't increase until later with the rise of soloists with stage presence and drama, such as LL Cool J. Most early hip hop was dominated by groups where collaboration between the members was integral to the show, and that was the birth of Hip Hop.

The Hip Hop Years parts 1 & 2