 |
 |  Spoken
word collective The Last Poets
release their debut recording. Mixing politically
conscious poetry with music, it later is lauded
as an early progenitor of hip-hop. |
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 Clive
Campbell, a.k.a. DJ Kool Herc,
DJs his first party in the South Bronx, an impoverished
neighborhood riddled with gang violence and
isolated from the rest of New York City following
the construction of Robert Moses’s Cross
Bronx Expressway. Known as the father of hip-hop,
Herc was the first to experiment with breakbeats,
manipulating the instrumental breaks of old
funk, R&B and soul tracks to form the basis
of hip-hop.
 Graffiti
tagging begins in New York City. |
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 Influenced
by Kool Herc, hip-hop pioneers Afrika
Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash and Grandmaster
Caz start DJing at house and street parties across
the Bronx.
Bambaataa forms the Universal Zulu Nation, a socially conscious collective of DJs, graffiti artists and breakdancers that included the b-boy crew the Shaka Zulu Kings. He defines the “four elements” of the nascent hip-hop scene as DJing, breakdancing, graffiti art and MCing. |
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Grandmaster Flash starts mixing, a new DJing
method that connects bits of two different songs
during the breaks.
The first MC team, which stemmed from party shouts during DJ sets, is formed by Coke La Rock and Clark Kent, a.k.a. Tyrone Smith.
DJ Grand Wizard Theodore accidentally invents “scratching,” or nudging a record under the needle during breaks. |
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Hip-hop spreads beyond the Bronx and into all
five boroughs of New York City. Meanwhile, disco
continues to dominate the radio airwaves and the
club scene.
More rappers begin performing as MCing starts to eclipse DJing.
 Bronx
b-boys JoJo and Jimmy D form the Rock
Steady Crew.
Artist Lee Quinones paints graffiti murals on subway trains and on handball courts. |
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 Record
label owner Sylvia Robinson assembles the Sugar
Hill Gang, who record the first commercial
rap recording, “Rapper’s Delight.”
Written by Grandmaster Caz and featuring a sample
from the disco act Chic, it exposes many Americans
to hip-hop for the first time.
Kurtis Blow, managed by Russell Simmons, becomes
the first rapper to sign with a major label. He
releases “Christmas Rappin” on Mercury
Records.
Hip-hop further enters the mainstream with Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack, a new Saturday night radio show on New Jersey radio station WHBI.
Wendy Clark, a.k.a. Lady B, one of hip-hop’s first well-known female artists, releases “To the Beat Y’All.” |
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1980s: The Rise to Radio » |
