Jeff Chang

But it's like I can totally relate to it in a way that maybe I can't relate to some of the more baroque directions that dance music is taking at that time or the more baroque

versions of rock music at that particular time right like this is something that's really direct you know a hip-hop a hippie to the hippie to the hip-hop pop you don't stop you know like that kind of stuff it's like yeah yeah i i get that in a way that i like i can't explain but i get it right i said a hip hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop you don't stop the rocker do the bang bang boogie say up jump the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie to beat

That particular record gets exported all around the world and wherever it lands, especially in places within the Black diaspora, the African diaspora, a whole bunch of other versions get started.

So you can actually go back to 1979 and hear a Jamaican version of Rapper's Delight.

You can hear a Brazilian version.

You can hear German versions of Rapper's Delight.

There's just a lot of different ways in which people pick up on it.

And that record becomes really one of the big records of 1979 and 1980.

So, you know, like any kind of good entrepreneur, they start going to look for the artists.

And that's where Grandmaster Flash comes in.

I think Grandmaster Flash is the person who really figures out how to build the hip hop show, how to turn like these random youth parties into a show.

So he brings it into the nightclubs and he turns it into a show, an attraction, right?

And then he's one of the first folks to get signed to a record label.

And so Grandmaster Flash...

becomes the sort of brand name for this record label called Sugar Hill, which is the same record label that put out Rapper's Delight.

Because he's the one that's legit.

He's the one that's been there from the very beginning, brought hip hop all the way to the top, has the best, like what's recognized as the best rap crew, and he's the best DJ.

And in many ways, Grandmaster Flash is the one that lifts hip hop to be considered as a serious art.

Ronald Reagan is now the president.

There's a huge recession that's set in into the cities.