ZENE – 50 Years of Hip Hop

August brought the 50th anniversary of hip hop music – the music genre and art form that has created millionaires, but which originated within the African American roots of New York, sparking individuality and opening a path to new music culture with smart and insightful messages.  Incorporating storytelling rap, the style was created at a Bronx party in 1973 by DJ Kool Herc. It has gone on to global success through so many artists from the Beastie Boys, Dr Dre, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Tupac, Jay Z, Eminem, Nicki Minaj and Run DMC to name but a few.   Background Hip-hop music and culture arrived through block parties (parties for residents of a ‘block’ or neighbourhood) in the Bronx area of New York in the Black American street culture. Its birthday is said to be August 11th, 1973, when Cindy Campbell gave a back-to-school party in the communal area of an apartment building in the Bronx. Her 18-year-old brother Clive Campbell, known as DJ Kool Herc was using two turntables and started this new era, calling his technique Merry-Go-Round, isolating beats and creating sequences over music such as James Brown. It caught on – moving records by hand, mixing […]