A teenager’s party created Hip-Hop
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It's 1973 in the Bronx and a teenage girl is writing a party invitation.
They were doing a back to school party because Cindy's thing was, I need to have new clothes to go back to school.
But Cindy doesn't actually have enough money to buy what she wants. So instead she decides she's going to throw a party to raise some money. And the headline act is going to be her brother.
Who, you know, has been playing these records on their dad's like sound system.
So her brother will be DJ and she will get enough money to buy some fresh new clothes. But what Cindy didn't realise at the time was that by penning that invitation and sending it out, she would set something in motion that would be much bigger than just a new wardrobe.
No one saw it coming that a teenage girl's back to school party would actually lead to the birth of hip hop. He stole my line, but I'll allow it.
I'm Mark Fidel, and this is the tale of how one party would go on to ignite a musical revolution, not just in America, but all around the world. And yes, no one saw it coming.
I was in middle school and Rapper's Delight came out. And I remember, you know, there were kids at our school with a boombox who played it one day after school and everybody was just like, what's that? So this is Jeff Chang. I'm an author. I started off as a hip hop journalist and wrote the book Can't Stop, Won't Stop, A History of the Hip Hop Generation.
This is Rapper's Delight by the Sugarhill Gang that came out when Jeff was a teenager.
This came out in 1979 and it was the first hip hop song to hit the top 40 charts. It's seminal and you can hear why.
At opening by Wonder Mike, it's one of the most famous intros in popular music history. It's a banger. Like you want to dance, right? I see you bopping your head. Baseline, the beat. Sorry, we can't actually use the music if I don't review and critique it. So five stars. Anyways, back to Jeff.
I grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii.
What sparked the creation of hip-hop at a teenager's party?
And on Rapper's Delight, they were talking about, you know, the chicken tastes like wood and, you know, like hotel, motel, holiday inn. For my generation, it was a time of rapid development. There was a lot of offshore investment, money coming in from Japan and California and all these hotels and buildings going up. And so, you know, in some ways when we heard this, there was like, oh, this is our music. This is speaking to our thing. You know, it was a little more edgy, a lot more urban, obviously. Gave me permission to be able to begin to express myself.
And that hip-hop culture of music and self-expression can be traced back to that party organised by a teenage girl. Her name was Cindy Campbell, and Cindy and her older brother Clive were born in Jamaica, and in the 1960s they moved to America. Fast forward to 1973 and Cindy's on school break, but school's nearly back and she needs some new clothes to start the term with. And to do that she needs money, so she decides to throw a back-to-school party. The invitation is hand-drawn on this little piece of paper. It's got big 3D letters at top that say, A DJ Kool Herc Party. And underneath, Back to School Jam. It's scrawled in permanent marker with stars all around it. The date? On August 11th. The price?
50 cents for the guys and a quarter for the girls. And at the bottom, it says, Special Guests with Cindy's name second in line. And the time of the party was from 9pm to 4am. So how do you keep a party going through the night? Well, music of course. Good music. And luckily Cindy's brother was, yes, a DJ. So she has an idea.
I'm going to get my brother who, you know, has been playing these records on their dad's like sound system, which they grew up in Jamaica.
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