Happy Birthday, Hip Hop
50 years ago Keith and Nettie Campbell moved their six children from Kingston, Jamaica to 1520 Sedgwick Ave in west Bronx, NYC. Their oldest son, Clive, started running with a graffiti gang and took on the name of Kool Herc.
44 years ago, after convincing his father to buy him a copy of James Brown's Sex Machine, Herc and his sister Cindy began hosting parties in the rec center of their apartment building. $0.25 entry for ladies, and $0.50 entry for the fellas.
As it turned out, Herc's party was right on time. Clubs in the Bronx were either riddled with gang members or catering to an older disco-only crowd and radio was no different. The Black youth of the city desperately needed an outlet... that night, they got so much more. Unknowingly, Herc catered to an entire sub-culture of inner-city youth and forever changed the path of Black culture. Hip hop was born that night and today is the most popular music genre in the world.
What made Herc's party so popular was his use of the break in classic soul, funk, and disco records. Eventually, the use of the break evolved into sampling. Sampling is one of the core elements of hip hop music.
So, in honor of Hip Hop's 44th Birthday, I'd like to list five of my favorite hip hop songs, some of their samples, and the music that they inspired.
1. Slick Rick & Doug E Fresh - La Di Da Di, 1985 (sampled in 869 songs)
original sample(s):
sampled in:
2. The Sequence - Funk You Up, 1979 (sampled 49 times)
original sample(s):
sampled in:
3. Biz Markie - Make the Music With Your Mouth, 1986 (sampled 75 times)
original sample(s):
sampled in:
4. Eric B. & Rakim - Follow The Leader, 1988 (sampled 76 times)
original sample(s):
sampled in:
(yes... that says KING Bobby Brown!!!)
5. World Famous Supreme - Hey DJ, 1984 (sampled 37 times)
original sample(s):
sampled in:
Thank you, DJ Herc... and LONG LIVE HIP HOP!
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