Hip-Hop Evolution

This is Hip Hop today.

A global phenomenon that permeates just

about every facet of society.

From business and sports,

to pop culture and politics.

-I've got 99 problems and now Jay Z's one. -

At this point, Hip Hop doesn't just influence the mainstream.

It is the mainstream.

But despite its success,

the rich history of Hip Hop's origins

is often glossed over.

Why does all this matter to me?

Well, because Hip Hop is a big part of my life.

My name is Shadrach Kabango

and firstly, I'm an MC.

I fell in love with Hip Hop back in the '90s,

and at that time, it was all about Biggie, Common and Eminem.

And since then, I've followed Hip Hop's growth and journey.

I even studied Hip Hop in university.

But I know there's a whole history that came before Big and Em.

A history that's been forgotten.

So, I'm going to the source, to meet with Hip Hop's stars,

its innovators,

its moguls

and its pioneers.

I'm going to unravel the true story of Hip Hop.

There's only one place to start a story about Hip Hop,

and that's here.

New York City.

I'm an MC today, but of course, I was a fan first.

And for any Hip Hop head, a trip to New York

is full of reminders of Hip Hop's deep history.

Even decades after it's birth,

the echoes of Hip Hop's early days are everywhere.

But to really understand Hip Hop's story,

I got to take you a step back,

to the early 1970s, just before it all began,

when a different sound ruled New York.

You have to understand, disco was hot.

Late '60s and the early '70s disco came and hit.

It was an explosion.

Everyone had on suits

and silk dresses

and you dress your best to go to the club.

Everyone was disco crazy.

You had CEO's,

athletes, entertainers,

whoever was so-called celebrity.

So, everybody's perception in New York City

was like, "Yo,

look at the fur coats,

look at the Rolls Royce's,

look at the champagne,

look at the diamonds,

look at the sex.

Look at all the money and the famous people."

People in the world,

especially in America, thought New York City was heaven.

But back then the Bronx was burning.

The South Bronx believed, by the city,

to be the worst fire area in the country.

There were 12,300 fires here last year.

It is as if there is a war going on.

Many parts of the South Bronx look like a city under siege,

with entire blocks wiped out,

buildings decimated, debris everywhere.

I grew up in the Bronx during the '60s.

It was like Beirut.

You know, in certain parts of the Bronx, man.

I mean, when they say the Bronx was burning,

the Bronx was burning.

You go up into the middle of the Bronx

and it's just these pockets of devastation.

You know, it was a massive urban decay.

South Bronx where we lived at

people were struggling, man.

You had single parents,

they were on welfare,

you know, people wasn't really working.

There wasn't really no jobs and stuff like that.

You couldn't go in certain areas, man.

You couldn't go in that area, you can't go in this area,

you couldn't go in that area.

You had killings, you had muggings,

you had people getting killed by the police,

people going to jail for the rest of their lives.

It was that boiling point

to just give birth to something from nothing.

And out of all that turbulence and upheaval

was the birth of Hip Hop.

While the grown-ups of New York City

lost themselves in the glitter of disco,

the kids in the Bronx searched for something different.

And they'd find it in the rec room parties of a local DJ,

Kool Herc.

The man who threw Hip Hop's first party.

This is the birthplace.

The big bang.

1520, right here.

Where it all began.

1520 Sedgwick Ave?

Yes. The kitchen and the two windows

were the recreation room.

At the time, the gangs was, you know,

terrorizing the house parties and stuff.

So, we asked could we give a party, you know.

They liked what I was playing and...

the rest is history.

Could you describe the atmosphere

at that party, August 11?

The place could only hold a good probably forty,

fifty people in there at the most.

I'd get some milk crates,

no chairs or nothing, just some crates.

You know, my friends, they're having a good time.

My first time going to a Kool Herc party

was up on the west side of the Bronx.

It looked liked it was kind of a rundown condemned building.

But females just hanging around in there. I'm like, "Oh, okay."

So, as we get closer and closer to start hearing some sounds

and that's when I got to realize that was Kool Herc.

Herc's parties was, like, really surreal.

Their voices went through a echo chamber

and back then they're like, you know,

we were smoking some weed and some angel dust.

It's just loud, booming music.

It's kind of dark, smokey

and their voices coming in echo.

Ra-ra-ra-ra!

Tee-tee-tee-tee!

Ta-ta-ta-ta!

Pop-pop-pop!

And you're just coming through all that

and guys is looking, and people dancing.

And just a vibe that, you know, Herc had.

Like, it looked excitement and a little bit of danger.

I remember just going to the bass speaker

and sticking my head in the bass speaker

and closing my eyes and the bass would

just rumble all through my body.

All the way down to my toes.

A lot of people claim to have been at that party

but how many people were really at that party.

-They wasn't there, they heard about it. -

Their big brother told them, their big sister told them.

They hear the-- the war stories and stuff. They wasn't there.

I asked them how old they was, once they tell me, he wasn't there.

That's it. How old you are? Yeah, right.

Herc, he was a revolutionary.

He revolted.

He did not want to play the disco music that we heard on the radio.

He wanted to give us the music that we grew up on, the soul music

and it was incredible

because in the world of disco,

here's this DJ coming out

playing this special kind of music.

And that was so important to the birth of Hip Hop

that we're gonna play funk music.

You're listening to,

like, the greatest records you ever heard and never heard any of them before

and never heard them on the radio.

You don't hear them on the radio, you don't hear them anywhere.

These are part of the sacred crates of Hip Hop.

And-- and the music selection,

I mean, we hear about Scorpio and The Mexican.

I mean, what else is kind of side by side with that?

That's one thing I don't do...

-give out names to records. - Oh, that's true actually.

What am I doing?

You gotta hear it.

Everybody can't have your records to hide it.

'Cause if everybody have my record, why come to my party?