Entry from
July 25, 2004
Hip-Hop
"Hip-hop" comes from New York CIty. Russell Simmons is planning a Hip-Hop Institute, museum and cultural center, probably for York College in Jamaica, Queens.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines "hip-hop" as "a youth subcilture, originating amongst the Black and Hispanic populations of New York City, which comprises elements such as rap music, graffiti art, and break-dancing, as well as distinctive codes of dress." The first citation is:
1982 N.Y. Rocker Jan. 28/4 Hip-hop DJ's can repeat ever-shorter phrases, with a little nimble-fingered action on the rim or the label.
The name "hip hop" probably emerged in 1979 with the lyric in the popular song "Rapper's Delight."
12 December 1981, New Musical Express, pg. 24:
BROTHER D WITH COLLECTIVE EFFORT:
How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise?
(...)
The label features a picture of a gun-toting Rasta, but the record has nothing to do with Jamaica. It's pure Harlem black political consciousness set to that hip-hop Bronx beat.
June 1982, Black Enterprise, "Rapping Their Way to Gold," pages 233-238. Pg.233, col. 2:
Sylvia Robinson didn't really want to be at the Harlem World Disco on thathot Sunday evening in 1979.
(...)(Col. 3 -- ed.)
Robinson, an experienced songwriter and singer, soon scooped threeEnglewood, NJ teenagers off the street and into a studio to record _Rapper's Delight_, a rap record based on Chic's rhythm for "Good Times." The Robinsons started a new company called Sugar Hill Records, and dubbed their rappers the Sugar Hill Gang. This was the first time New York City's rapping style had been recorded, and to the mainline music business's amazement, therecord became the hottest seller of 1979, in the United States and Canada, while also making the Top Ten in Western Europe, Israel, and South Africa. The Robinsons claim that _Rapper's Delight_ has sold more than 2 millioncopies in the US alone, grossing mor e than $3.5 million, and sparking a legion of imitations.
25 February 1983, New York Times, pg C15 ad:
Wild Style Directed by Charlie Ahearn. WILD STYLE is the cinema's first "Hip Hop" musical, and it is straight from the South Bronx. "Hip-Hop" is part-Rap, part-Breaking, part-DJing, and if these terms are news to you, it's what a whole lot of ghetto teenagers are doing. WILD STYLE is an energetic and exuberant romance between a lone and legendary graffiti maker, Zoro, and his art, his girlfriend Rose, and his neighborhood. With Patti Astor as a roving journaliswt, and city kids playing themselves, filmmaker Charlie Ahearn has choreographed a celebration of street culture that dances somewhere between the actual and the fabulous. The beat is irresistible. 82 mins. (U.S.A. 1983)
31 August 1983, New York Times, pg. C20:
Mr. Laswell and Mr. Beinhorn speak the new language of hip-hop rhythms, drum computers, sequencers, and vocoders as naturally as if they had invented it.
21 March 1983, Time, pg. 72, col. 1:
Chilling Out on Rap Flash
New City music brings out the last word in style
Def. Definitely def. Definitely def, indeed. (...)
...this subculture, nicknamed hip hop...
26 May 1983, Rolling Stone, pg. 18, col. 1:
TALK THAT TALK/ WALK THAT WALK
It's fresh. It's the new deal. It's called "hip hop."
The Oxford English Dictionary defines "hip-hop" as "a youth subcilture, originating amongst the Black and Hispanic populations of New York City, which comprises elements such as rap music, graffiti art, and break-dancing, as well as distinctive codes of dress." The first citation is:
1982 N.Y. Rocker Jan. 28/4 Hip-hop DJ's can repeat ever-shorter phrases, with a little nimble-fingered action on the rim or the label.
The name "hip hop" probably emerged in 1979 with the lyric in the popular song "Rapper's Delight."
12 December 1981, New Musical Express, pg. 24:
BROTHER D WITH COLLECTIVE EFFORT:
How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise?
(...)
The label features a picture of a gun-toting Rasta, but the record has nothing to do with Jamaica. It's pure Harlem black political consciousness set to that hip-hop Bronx beat.
June 1982, Black Enterprise, "Rapping Their Way to Gold," pages 233-238. Pg.233, col. 2:
Sylvia Robinson didn't really want to be at the Harlem World Disco on thathot Sunday evening in 1979.
(...)(Col. 3 -- ed.)
Robinson, an experienced songwriter and singer, soon scooped threeEnglewood, NJ teenagers off the street and into a studio to record _Rapper's Delight_, a rap record based on Chic's rhythm for "Good Times." The Robinsons started a new company called Sugar Hill Records, and dubbed their rappers the Sugar Hill Gang. This was the first time New York City's rapping style had been recorded, and to the mainline music business's amazement, therecord became the hottest seller of 1979, in the United States and Canada, while also making the Top Ten in Western Europe, Israel, and South Africa. The Robinsons claim that _Rapper's Delight_ has sold more than 2 millioncopies in the US alone, grossing mor e than $3.5 million, and sparking a legion of imitations.
25 February 1983, New York Times, pg C15 ad:
Wild Style Directed by Charlie Ahearn. WILD STYLE is the cinema's first "Hip Hop" musical, and it is straight from the South Bronx. "Hip-Hop" is part-Rap, part-Breaking, part-DJing, and if these terms are news to you, it's what a whole lot of ghetto teenagers are doing. WILD STYLE is an energetic and exuberant romance between a lone and legendary graffiti maker, Zoro, and his art, his girlfriend Rose, and his neighborhood. With Patti Astor as a roving journaliswt, and city kids playing themselves, filmmaker Charlie Ahearn has choreographed a celebration of street culture that dances somewhere between the actual and the fabulous. The beat is irresistible. 82 mins. (U.S.A. 1983)
31 August 1983, New York Times, pg. C20:
Mr. Laswell and Mr. Beinhorn speak the new language of hip-hop rhythms, drum computers, sequencers, and vocoders as naturally as if they had invented it.
21 March 1983, Time, pg. 72, col. 1:
Chilling Out on Rap Flash
New City music brings out the last word in style
Def. Definitely def. Definitely def, indeed. (...)
...this subculture, nicknamed hip hop...
26 May 1983, Rolling Stone, pg. 18, col. 1:
TALK THAT TALK/ WALK THAT WALK
It's fresh. It's the new deal. It's called "hip hop."