Marc Fennell

Jeff Chang is a former hip-hop journalist and the author of the book Can't Stop, Won't Stop, A History of the Hip-Hop Generation.

This episode was produced by Zoe Ferguson and Ellie Parnell.

The sound engineer was Angie Grant.

If you have a story like this could be from any chapter in history.

I don't care.

Like space travel, music history.

I'm into it all.

If you've got an idea for a story, let us know.

All you need to do is email us.

No one saw it coming at abc.net.au.

We read all of them.

We investigate all of them.

And the best stories end up right here in your pod.

No One Saw It Coming is, of course, made on Gadigal land in Sydney, Australia for ABC Radio National.

I'm Mark Finnell and, yes, I will be back next week with a brand new episode.

Until then, bye.

It is one of the biggest cultural events on the planet.

But at its core, this is a giant high-end costume party.

Flash bulbs, spectacle, outfits engineered to break the internet.

But behind all of this is a story of sharp turns, near misses, and a few moments where this whole thing almost didn't happen.