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Hip Hop Family Tree
''Hip Hop Family Tree'' is a series of educational and historical comic books by Ed Piskor that documents the early history of hip hop culture. Originating online with ''Boing Boing'', the series was published in print form by Fantagraphics. The first collection was a 2014 ''New York Times'' Graphic Books Best Seller (#7) and was listed in ''The Washington Post'' Top 10 graphic novels of 2013. The second collection won the Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work in 2015. Piskor's artistic style in ''Hip Hop Family Tree''—including his use of Ben-Day Dots—hearkens back to the comic book styles prevalent during the period being retold. Robert Crumb is openly referenced as an inspiration to Piskor, who cites Crumb's "Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country" trading cards as an influence. Crumb and Piskor are similar in their commemorations of key artists and musical figures, and the informative narration of their chosen genre's historical evolution. Publication history ''Hip Hop ...
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DJ Kool Herc
Clive Campbell (born April 16, 1955), better known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc, is a Jamaican-American DJ who is credited with being the founder of hip hop music in the Bronx, New York City, in 1973. Nicknamed the Father of Hip-Hop, Campbell began playing hard funk records of the sort typified by James Brown. Campbell isolated the instrumental portion of the record which emphasized the drum beat—the " break"—and switch from one break to another. Using the same two-turntable set-up of disco DJs, he used two copies of the same record to elongate the break. This breakbeat DJing, using funky drum solos, formed the basis of hip hop music. Campbell's announcements and exhortations to dancers helped lead to the syncopated, rhythmically spoken accompaniment now known as rapping. He called the dancers "break-boys" and "break-girls", or simply b-boys and b-girls, terms that continue to be used fifty years later in the sport of breaking. Campbell's DJ style was quickly taken up ...
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World Class Wreckin' Cru
World Class Wreckin' Cru was an American electro group, during the 1980s in the Los Angeles area, that contributed to rap's development. Two of its members, Dr. Dre and DJ Yella, attained greater fame as members of N.W.A, which pioneered gangsta rap. A song by the Cru had also featured R&B singer Michel'le. Early career World Class Wreckin' Cru debuted in the nightclub Eve After Dark, owned by Alonzo Williams, an early West Coast DJ very popular in the Los Angeles area. In the 1970s, Williams had begun producing dance songs under the name Disco Construction, named after funk group Brass Construction. At his songs' popularity, Williams arranged nightclub performances. Initially directing its music program was Detroit-born Andre "Unknown DJ" Manuel (who would later join Comptons Most Wanted), who was influenced by East Coast sounds, like Soulsonic Force, Orbit, and Scorpio. As the 1980s opened, electronic funk arrived, sampling drum beats and borrowing from old-school rap. Di ...
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Russell Simmons
Russell Wendell Simmons (born October 4, 1957) is an American entrepreneur, writer and record executive. He co-founded the hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings, and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. He has promoted veganism and a yoga lifestyle, and published books on lifestyle, health, and entrepreneurship. Simmons' net worth was estimated at $340 million in 2011. After producing or managing artists such as Kurtis Blow, Run DMC, Whodini, and Jimmy Spicer, Simmons joined forces with producer Rick Rubin to found Def Jam Recordings. Under Simmons' leadership as chairman, Def Jam signed acts including the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Jay-Z, DMX, and Kanye West. From 1992 to 1997, he also produced the Def Comedy Jam television program. In 2017, Simmons was publicly accused of sexual assault by multiple women; he denied the allegations. Following these allegations, Simmons stepped down from his various business roles and charities, ...
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Grandmaster Flash
Joseph Robert Saddler (born January 1, 1958), known by his stage name Grandmaster Flash, is a Barbadian-American musician and DJ. He created a DJ technique called the Quick Mix Theory. This technique serviced the break-dancer and the rapper by elongating the drum breaks through the use of duplicate copies of vinyl. This technique gave birth to cutting and scratching. It also gave rappers better music with a seamless elongated bed of beats to speak on. He also invented the slipmat. He is the founder and creator of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, the first rap group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2019 he became the first hip hop artist to be honoured with the Polar Music Prize. On May 21, 2022, he acquired an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts from Buffalo State University. On June 1, 2023, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in music from Lehman College in the Bronx, NY. On August 4, 2023, Saddler was issued a proclamation from the city of New ...
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Afrika Bambaataa
Lance Taylor (born April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is a retired American DJ, rapper, and record producer. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of hip hop culture. Afrika Bambaataa is one of the originators of breakbeat DJing. Through his co-opting of his street gang Black Spades into the music and culture-oriented organization Universal Zulu Nation, he has helped spread hip hop culture throughout the world. In May 2016, Bambaataa left his position as head of the "Universal Zulu Nation" due to multiple allegations of child sexual abuse dating as far back as the 1970s. Early life Born Lance Taylor to Jamaican and Barbadian immigrants, Bambaataa grew up in the Bronx River Projects, with an activist mother and uncle. As a child, he was exposed to the black liberation movement and witnessed debates between his mother and uncle regarding the conflicting ideologies in the movement. ...
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1520 Sedgwick Avenue
1520 Sedgwick Avenue is a 102-unit apartment building in the Morris Heights neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Described in ''The New York Times'' as a long-time "haven for working class families", it has been historically accepted as the birthplace of hip hop. The first mortgages for units at 1520 Sedgwick were made in 1967. Following a long period of neglect and shady dealings in the 1990s and 2000s, observers described the building as a symbol of the city's affordable housing crisis. History The creation of the Cross Bronx Expressway uprooted thousands in the Bronx during the early 1970s, displacing communities, and fostering white flight. 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, which received its first mortgage in 1967, is located on the Expressway. Hip hop birthplace 1520 Sedgwick Avenue has been called "the birthplace of hip hop." As hip hop grew throughout the Bronx, 1520 was a starting point where Clive Campbell, later known as DJ Kool Herc, presided over parties in the comm ...
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Graffiti
Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire. Modern graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered vandalism. Modern graffiti began in the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s and later spread to the rest of the United States and throughout the world. Etymology "Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word ''graffiato'' ("scratched"). In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek —''gr ...
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Rapping
Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The components of rap include "content" (what is being said, e.g., lyrics), "flow" ( rhythm, rhyme), and "delivery" ( cadence, tone). Rap differs from spoken-word poetry in that it is usually performed off-time to musical accompaniment. It also differs from singing, which varies in pitch and does not always include words. Because they do not rely on pitch inflection, some rap artists may play with timbre or other vocal qualities. Rap is a primary ingredient of hip-hop music, and so commonly associated with the genre that it is sometimes called "rap music". Precursors to modern rap music include the West African griot tradition, certain vocal styles of blues and jazz, an African-American insult ga ...
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B-boying
Breakdancing or breaking, also called b-boying (when performed by men) or b-girling (women), is a style of street dance originated by African Americans and Nuyorican, Puerto Ricans in The Bronx borough of New York City. Breakdancing consists mainly of four kinds of movement—toprock, Floorwork#B-boying, footwork, power moves, and Freeze (b-boy move), freezes—and is typically set to songs containing drum Break (music), breaks, especially in funk, soul music, soul, and hip-hop. Its modern dance elements originated among the poor youth of New York during the early 1980s. It is tied to the birth of hip-hop, whose DJs developed rhythmic break for dancers. The dance form has expanded globally, with an array of organizations and independent competitions supporting its growth. Breaking became an Breaking at the Summer Olympics, Olympic sport at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, as per a December 7, 2020 decision by the International Olympic Committee, after a proposal by the Wo ...
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Disc Jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music festivals), mobile DJs (who are hired to work at public and private events such as weddings, parties, or festivals), and turntablism, turntablists (who use record players, usually turntables, to manipulate sounds on phonograph records). Originally, the "disc" in "disc jockey" referred to shellac and later vinyl records, but nowadays DJ is used as an all-encompassing term to also describe persons who DJ mix, mix music from other recording media such as compact cassette, cassettes, Compact disc, CDs or digital audio files on a CDJ, controller, or even a laptop. DJs may adopt the title "DJ" in front of their real names, adopted pseudonyms, or stage names. DJs commonly use audio equipment that can play at least two sources of recorded music simul ...
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Rick Rubin
Frederick Jay Rubin (, ; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is a co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. Rubin helped popularize hip hop by producing records for pioneering acts such as LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Public Enemy and Geto Boys. He has also produced hit records for acts from a variety of other genres, such as pop (Kesha, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga), heavy metal ( Danzig, Metallica, Slayer), alternative rock (The Cult, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beabadoobee, Rage Against the Machine, the Strokes, Weezer), hard rock (Audioslave, AC/DC, Aerosmith), nu metal (Linkin Park, System of a Down, Slipknot), and country (Johnny Cash, The Avett Brothers, the Chicks). He also worked with Kid Rock in 2010 for his album ''Born Free''. In 2021 he co-starred in the six-part documentary miniseries '' McCartney 3,2,1'' which explores the career of Paul McCartney. ...
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Beastie Boys
The Beastie Boys were an American Hip-hop, hip hop and Rap rock, rap rock group formed in New York City in 1979. They were composed of Ad-Rock, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar), Adam Yauch, Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Mike D, Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums). The Beastie Boys were formed out of members of experimental hardcore punk band the Young Aborigines, which was formed in 1979, with Diamond on drums, Jeremy Shatan on bass guitar, John Berry (Beastie Boys), John Berry on guitar, and Kate Schellenbach later joining on percussion. When Shatan left New York City in mid-1981, Yauch replaced him on bass and the resulting band was named the Beastie Boys. Berry left shortly thereafter and was replaced by Horovitz. After achieving local success with the 1983 Comedy hip-hop, comedy hip hop single "Cooky Puss", the Beastie Boys made a full transition to Hip-hop, hip hop, and Schellenbach left. They toured with Madonna in 1985 and a year later released their ...
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