Hip Hop’s origins in The Bronx is replete with irony. A new form of music was created when houses were abandoned and burned, police and fire resources were cut, violence spread, and young people lost the ability to learn how to play musical instruments.
Morrisania and Hunts Point, the two Bronx communities responsible for much of the borough’s musical creativity, lost 50 percent and 60 percent of their populations respectively and fully 40 percent of the housing stock of the South Bronx was destroyed. But the fires and abandoned buildings were only one component of the tragedy.
Most scholars think that the big bang which launched hip hop took place at the parties held by Cindy Campbell and her brother, Clive Campbell, aka Kool DJ Herc, at the community center of a Mitchell Lama housing complex 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in 1973.
Because Hip Hop, as much as blues or gospel, was a case of people who created musical innovations amidst extraordinary hardship.
But hip hop also caught the attention of musicians and artists in the Lower East Side punk scene. Not only did they see the potential to market rapping as a musical form, they also saw potential in graffiti as “saleable” art and break dancing as marketable performance whether live or on film.
Even before Hip Hop was created and spread, young people in the Bronx were shaping their own destinies by trying to reduce violence in the face of drug epidemics, fires, disinvestment, and cuts to city services.
Before the emergence of hip hop, several neighborhoods in the South Bronx had a mixture of cultures and traditions that made them unique in New York City and the nation and fostered a remarkable legacy of musical creativity.
During the very years that Hip Hop emerged in the Bronx, large portions of the borough were hit by and arson and abandonment cycle that left scores of once thriving communities in ruins and produced a loss of housing stock and population rivaling that of cities hit by aerial bombardment.
Though the tragedies that hit The Bronx took a unique cast there, people in other parts of the city knew all about it. The Bronx was only 15 minutes by subway from Harlem, 30 minutes from Midtown, and 40 minutes from Lower Manhattan and a 20 minute car ride from New Jersey.
The first is the unique cultural capital of The Bronx and its people which is derived from immigration and the mixing of cultures. The second is the tragedies which befell The Bronx in the 1960s and 1970s, once regarded as unique, which were to hit many other cities and communities in subsequent years.
Hip Hop’s origins in The Bronx is replete with irony. A new form of music was created when houses were abandoned and burned, police and fire resources were cut, violence spread, and young people lost the ability to learn how to play musical instruments.
Exploring the New York City borough, The Bronx. French singer-songwriter Laetitia Sheriff is travelling around the US on the trail of music, history and culture. Next on her tour is one of New York’s lesser-visited boroughs: The Bronx .
During her visit, Laetitia plunged headlong into all the Bronx has to offer, managing to pack in a must-see hip hop pilgrimage, a visit to a cottage once inhabited by Edgar Allan Poe, and a stroll around the botanical gardens during her short time there.
His son, TS Monk, lists "Epistrophy" (1941) as one of his father's best jazz standards. The name says it all: "Bronx Keeps Creating It" (1995) by Fat Joe. Bruce Springsteen's "Lost in the Flood" (1973), a song about the Vietnam War, namechecks the Bronx.
The Yankees baseball team are 27-times World Series Champions, and have their home at the Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Not only can you catch a world-class baseball match here, but you can also take a tour with one of their knowledgeable and experienced guides. View more.
And thus, on August 11, 1973, hip hop was born at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in Morris Heights in the Bronx. His innovation was the now ubiquitous technique ...
The Bronx is the home of hip hop and boasts a reputation as the heart of New York street culture, so it’s no surprise to find that it’s a colorful and diverse neighborhood, and indeed one of the most vibrant and exciting destinations in the US.
Check out this locally inspired soundtrack to accompany you on your visit to the Bronx: DJ Kool Herc was DJ-ing at his sister's 1973 back-to-school party in the Bronx when he invented the technique of breaking records to allow people to (break)dance for longer. Thanks to this, he is known as the "Father of Hip Hop".