Thu 6/29 @ 3-9PM
About 50 years ago, give or take a year, hip-hop culture first sprang up at block parties in the New York borough of the Bronx as DJs invented new techniques such as mixing, sampling and scratching vinyl records, while MCs, soon to be called rappers, used spoken word ideas adapted from poets and Jamaican toasters to get the crowd going. Around this culture, breakdancing and graffiti are began to emerge.
But the rest of the world didn’t get the message for a few years yet. The Sugarhill Gang’s 1979 single “Rapper’s Delight” was the first hip-hop song to get mainstream airplay. By 1980 artists such as Afrikaa Bambaataa and GrandMaster Flash and the Furious Five began to attract the attention of people outside their NYC community. In 1983, the first hip hop movie Wild Style was released nationally (I saw it at the old North Randall Mall), touching on all the elements of the culture and spreading the news across America. By 1984, when the Swatch Watch Fresh Fest toured the country, hitting Cleveland’s Public Hall in October, its featured artists — Kurtis Blow, Run D.M.C., Whodini, the Fat Boys, Newcleus — had audiences well beyond New York.
Now of course, hip hop has touched every genre of music from jazz to country to heavy metal. So it’s probably past time for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to be dedicating a major exhibit to the genre Hip Hop at 50: Holla If Ya Hear Me opens this week.
It opens with a day featuring a host of hip-hop pioneers including Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run-D.M.C., Chuck D. and Flavor Flav of Public Enemy, Salt ‘N’ Pepa and Roxanne Shante. Chuck Dee and McDaniels will be in the Foster Theater from 3-4:30pm to talk with the Rock Hall’s Jason Hanley about their exhibit
The exhibit opens to the public from 6-10pm with a kickoff event on the Rock Hall’ PNC Stage with Chuck D, Flavor Flav, McDaniels and others. DJ NicNacc will be spinning classic hip hop and archival footage from the inductions of Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, and others will be screening. Cue the whining from those who think “rock and roll” exclusively means 4-5 white boys playing guitars.
Get tickets here.
Hip-Hop-at-50-Rock-Hall-Nights