MUAR 392 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Cross Bronx Expressway, B-Boying, Urban Renewal
16 Aug 2016
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MUAR 392
Lecture 23 — March 18
Hip Hop in the 1980s
Four core elements of hip hop:
-MCing — rhyming over beats, beats tied back to breakbeats and DJing. Distinct of rapping
-DJing — breakbeats
-Graffiti
-Break dancing
The South Bronx
-Construction of Cross Bronx Expressway (1963) — part of Moses’ urban renewal project,
displaces residents and businesses, property devaluation, landlord abandonment, “white
flight”
-Results in a ghetto in the mid to late 1970s — many incidents of arson in South Bronx in
late 1970s were further limiting access to affordable housing
History of Hip-Hop culture — composed of african american culture
-Not a genre that can be classically defined, as there are elements that are not musically
associated. Its a broad cultural concept, rather than just a specific kind of music as fashion,
race, gender, location and sound all contribute to Hip-Hop
-Tracing it back to Africa and Jamaica creates a black identity to it
-Not a new radical undermining of youth, but rather a way to tell a story
-Afrodiasporac
Kool Herk — “Merry Go Round”
-One of the first Bronx DJs to use two turntables and a mixer (common technique for
Manhattan disco DJs)
-Assorted rhythm breaks strung together, often to have two songs going at once or one song
slurring into another
-Keeps the music going continuously
-From this he developed a breakbeat style
-DJs would rap or speak over the sections of beats that had no lyrics which led to the idea of
rapping
Scratching & Backspinning
-Scratching by Grandmaster Flash — continuously looping short rhythm mixed with scratching
Earliest Hip-hop in mass-public consciousness:
-“Rapper’s Delight” — Sugar Hill Gang (1979)
-First widely heard hip-hop single
-Setting is a disco club (as seen in video)
-First set of lyrics — “hip hop, hip to the hop” rap is so new that in the song they are
explaining what rap is
-Commercial effort to have success in hip hop
-Deeply rooted to disco
Blondie — “Rapture” (1980)
-Features Basquiat’s art work
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Mcing rhyming over beats, beats tied back to breakbeats and djing. Construction of cross bronx expressway (1963) part of moses" urban renewal project, displaces residents and businesses, property devaluation, landlord abandonment, white. Results in a ghetto in the mid to late 1970s many incidents of arson in south bronx in late 1970s were further limiting access to affordable housing. History of hip-hop culture composed of african american culture. Not a genre that can be classically de ned, as there are elements that are not musically associated. Its a broad cultural concept, rather than just a speci c kind of music as fashion, race, gender, location and sound all contribute to hip-hop. Tracing it back to africa and jamaica creates a black identity to it. Not a new radical undermining of youth, but rather a way to tell a story. One of the rst bronx djs to use two turntables and a mixer (common technique for.
