Fifty years ago, this month, some teenagers organized a compinte at the beginning of the Bronx school year. Today, this component is through many “hip-hop births. “

Scott Detrow, host:

Hip-hop has a big birthday next week. Almost 50 years ago, on August 11, 1973, some teenagers organized a party that returned to school in the playroom of its construction in the Bronx. And presiding over all this was Deejay Kool Herc. Since then, hip-hop has evolved and exploded. Now it is very unlikely that he creates in the global today without this music and his culture. Then, next week, everything that is considered to explore five key moments that helped describe hip hop, starting with this party that many call the birth of hip-hop.

(Soundbit of Song, “Rapper’s Delight”)

Weapon gay: I said a hip-hop, hippie, hip hip, hip-hop and stop.

Detow: My Coanfrerion Juana Summers joins me now. Hey, Juana.

Juana Summers, byline: Hello.

Detrow: So what did he do to do the 50th anniversary of hip-hop?

Summers: Well, I mean, first, can you believe that it has only been 50 years since the date we attacked the birth of hip-hop? I mean, hip-hop is everywhere at this time. This has an effect on every detail of our culture, elegant sports, everything we do, really. It is a massive business. So, first, I only know that the brand was important. And we also seek to look back and communicate to some of the other people who have influenced their rise that they would not possibly obtain their opinion and others that have built their career in the documentation.

Detow: I have the impression that 50 years is one of the steps that look like a very long period, but when you prevent it and think about it, it is not so long.

Summers: no

Detrow: And you communicate to many key people who were there at that time. You have visited many key positions such as this construction, which is still there in which you can still start. Let’s communicate about this party for a minute. What did Kool Herc so different, and why this moment gets credits for the birth of all this?

Summers: Well, I mean, like any Desejay, DJ Kool Herc has damaged the pieces he decided and the length and strength of his sound system, which, at that time, set out outside, literally connected to the city lighting accessories to discharge the force to force a sound system. But Kool Herc also saw that the dancers who were at those portions he deduced, enjoyed the portions of the records where the voices left and just had the percussive breakdowns or the breaks.

(Soundbite of Music)

Summers: Therefore, this strategy evolved where he would play the breakdown of an album, then played only the breakdown of some other album in his other rotating plate. And then he was queuing in some other breakup of his first turn. I mean, you understand the point. Continue from one place to another. And it was actually known as innovative. He also understood how to use his two simultaneous weaving to take a single break with two copies of the same album.

(Soundbite of Music)

Summers: And, I mean, Scott, you can almost think of that as a predecessor to try, however, at the time of Kool Herc, allowed the dancers to go crazy for a long time. And he and his friends can rise to the microphone above those rhythms and make ads such as level jokes or those small fun rhymes and attach them. I mean, you can believe what I could look.

Detow: Yes.

Summers: I had the possibility of talking with DJ Kool Herc through the previous phone this year. He at 18 the day of this remarkable party, but now he is 68, and called this strategy the joy.

DJ Kool Herc: The most productive component of the files was. Step to yellow.

(Soundbite of Music)

Detrow: As you pointed out, as you have reported the other stories of this series, what you?

Summers: I mean, this is a task in which we have worked during the last five months. And I think that what remained as the maximum is that some of the first voices and names that were worried in the first days of the Hit-Hop history did not obtain advantages in the same way as the Megawatt artists who are family names in the hip-hop. I mean, we met Mc Debbie D. She left alone as a solo rapper in the 80s. And she told us, at that time, that no idea of ​​this music created as lucrative. People have not noticed it as a viable career. Now we have to say that he has changed his turn, but he left some of those original pioneers with emotions that love the soft on this subject.

Mc Debbie D: I think it’s great. I mean, other people have to live in the lives of all tactics to live. The only challenge I have with him is that everyone benefits from hip-hop but the pioneers, who sit the foundations.

Summers: So, I mean, one thing that really maintained in the brain is the fact that all this guy, all this culture, in reality, was born of young people who were teenagers, such as Debbie D, who lived in New York, in poor neighborhoods that went to those block portions where someone was indicating, exterior for not much money. This first party, I think, was $ 0. 25 for women and $ 0. 50 for children Kool Herc was Deejay. And hip-hop was actually born of the spirit of ingenuity and other young people who touched their hands, were treated and ended up turning it into a lovely music and a charming culture that are still repercussions through our culture today.

Detow: Very good. Juana Summers, thank you very much.

Summers: Thank you, Scott.

Detrow: And you can listen to Juana’s report on the great anniversary of Hip-Hop all week. You can also consult your local member station for Hip-Hop 50 in NPR Special. To your member station, go to npr. org/stations.