Hip-Hop Evolution (2016–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - The Underground to the Mainstream - full transcript

[techno beat]

[techno music]

[Shad] For a lifelong hip hop head,

meeting the pioneers who
built hip hop's foundations

was an eye-opening experience.

Because I began to understand
the incredible innovation

that fueled this music.

But hip hop today is a lot more than
DJ's and MC's rocking parks in the Bronx.

It's a showbiz juggernaut

that dominates the Internet,

television and radio



and fills arenas around the world.

So clearly, creative innovation
isn't the only thing that builds hip hop.

So what took it over the top?

How did hip hop go from the underground

to the mainstream?

["Hip-Hop" by the Dead Prez]

♪ Uh, uh, uh, 1, 2, 1, 2 ♪

♪ Uh, uh, 1, 2, 1, 2, uh, uh ♪

♪ One thing 'bout music
When it hit, you feel no pain ♪

♪ White folks say
it controls your brain ♪

♪ I know better than that, that's game ♪

♪ And we ready for that
Two soldiers, head of the pack ♪

♪ Matter of fact, who got the gat? ♪

♪ And where my army at?
Rather attack and not react ♪



♪ It's bigger than a hip-hop
Hip-hop, hip-hop, hip ♪

♪ It's bigger than a hip-hop
Hip-hop, hip-hop ♪

[sirens wailing]

[fast beat]

[Shad] New York City might have
more rappers than streets today,

but in the late 1970s,

there was only one crew to look up to.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

Flash and his MC's were the first crew
to break out of uptown New York

and travel the globe.

Their success was something
that all the young B-boys

in the Bronx and Harlem aspired to.

But getting on the mic was another story.

Creating a crew was expensive.

You needed mics, mixers,

turntables and speakers.

But hip hop was built on
overcoming limitations.

Sometimes, it just needed a little nudge.

[intense pulsing instrumental]

[ominous music]

[reporter] The clock stopped
exactly 24 hours ago,

along with just about everything else
here in New York City.

The only lights were car lights.

Otherwise, the Big Apple was pitch black.

Thousands took to the streets
to devastate and devour.

City officials summed it all up
by calling it a night of terror.

Some shop owners attempted
to guard their stores

with shotguns, homemade
spears and baseball bats

in the South Bronx.

One Bronx police officer said the looters
swept through here like locusts.

[Grandmaster Caz] It was crazy, everybody
headed towards the electronic stores.

There's a place called the Sound Room

and they was pulling the gates down,

so I went over and I helped them pull
the gate down.

Got it down and we broke the window

and we went inside.

And then, the cops came

and they had flashlights.

So, everybody's, "Shh, get
down, get down, get down."

Everybody was down on the floor

until the flashlights disappeared.

And then we got up

and then we ran out.

And I had a Clubman Two mixer, all right,

and that's what I got away with.

[reporter] What did you get?

I got me a stereo, clothes,
a bicycle, a bracelet.

We seeing everybody just break wild,

so we just went with that, there.

[reporter] Do you think
if there's another blackout

the same thing will happen?

Yup.

[Kool Moe Dee] The hood mentality
is the minute there's an opportunity

to capitalize on something,

we go in.

When the blackout happens,

if you're a DJ or you want to be one,
you're absolutely stealing turntables.

And all of a sudden, this guy didn't
have anything last week but he's in

the park this week,
like where'd you get all of that?

Hey, nobody says anything.

But it is what it is.

[Disco Wiz] It was absolute Christmas.

I saw the craziest stuff that night, man.

Everybody I knew got gear.

[Grandmaster Caz] The bottom line
is that there was a wealth

of equipment available
to all the local DJ's.

[GrandMixer DXT] After that summer,

it was saturated with DJ's
playing sound systems

and the groups

really started to form.

Everyone's an MC now.

♪ Brag about my crew ♪

♪ You know what we can do ♪

♪ Don't have an LP ♪

♪ But we're not blue ♪

♪ I'll rhyme to the tune to set the mood ♪

♪ And you hope that
the ugly won't bother you... ♪

[Kool Moe Dee] At that time,
it's pandemonium

'cause you had so many groups.

You had Funky Four,

uh, Busy Bee Starski.

You got DXT and those guys.

[Grand Wizzard Theodore] Spoony Gee,
the Treacherous 3,

Fearless Four,

Masterdon and the Def Committee,

Crash Crew.

Yo, they had a lot of groups

coming out of Harlem and the Bronx, man.

You had to battle in order
for people to know who you are.

Being competitive is what it's all about.

It makes you want to try to stay
two or three steps ahead

of everybody else that's doing it.

Tell me about those battles
and those shows at that time.

It was intense, man.

For, for a while, man, it was intense.

The group at the top,

Furious Five, no doubt.

But the Furious Five, they was on tour,
they was out of the city,

so we were competing
for that spot, you know,

that, that number one spot in New York.

The Fantastic

and the Cold Crush

were without a doubt
the primary street rivals

in the Bronx right at that time.

♪ We're the Fantastic Five MC's ♪

♪ And we're pleasing all the ladies ♪

♪ And when we shock
the party and do it right ♪

♪ They seem to all go crazy... ♪

[Grand Wizzard Theodore] We tried
to be like the Jackson Five,

like dance steps,

harmonizing,

it got to the point where it started
getting so popular with the ladies,

that we became
the Fantastic Romantic Five.

♪ Ashes to ashes and dust to dust ♪

♪ We are the brothers
known as the Cold Crush ♪

♪ Not one, not two, not three, but four ♪

♪ We keep your arms in the air
Your feet on the floor ♪

♪ Guaranteed to give you what
you paid your money for ♪

♪ But the Cold Crush Brothers
got pride galore ♪

♪ If I dissed her voice
all the ladies could tell... ♪

When we got together,
we practiced for a year in my house

everyday before we even went out
and did anything.

We blended together so well,
so, like, when you say,

"I know somebody where
I can finish his sentences,"

we could finish each other's sentences.

-♪ The heart, the breaker ♪
-♪ The heart, the breaker ♪

♪ On any stage
I'm the number one breaker... ♪

[Grandmaster Caz] Us and the Fantastic's
rivalry came to a culmination.

You had a battle at Harlem World.

Shit was epic.

[female MC] What's up, fly guy?

[male MC] Hello, fly girl.

♪ It's the disco sound ♪

♪ At Harlem World ♪

♪ The Cold Crush Four ♪

♪ With The Fantastic Five... ♪

[Grand Wizzard Theodore]
Tensions were flaring up.

They took it, like, really,
really, really, really serious.

And it was a thousand dollars that night,
it was packed to capacity.

You had the Cold Crush Brothers'
people there,

you had Fantastic Five people there.

[crowd roaring]

[male MC] Harlem World.

Settle down, settle down,
settle down, settle down!

[Grand Wizzard Theodore] The owner said,
"All right, fellas,

it's a thousand dollars, winner takes all.

But, if you guys want,
I can give the winner

seven hundred

and give the losers three hundred.

What do you guys want to do?"

Everybody looked at each other.

Fuck it! Winner takes all!

[hip hop rapping]

[crowd cheers]

-[male MC] Say, "Fantastic."
-[crowd] Fantastic!

-[male MC] Say, "Bombastic."
-[crowd] Bombastic!

[Joe Conzo] We would, uh,

stack the room, so to speak.

We would bring Cold Crush
fans from all over

and Grand Wizzard Theodore
and the Fantastic Five

would stack the room with their people.

And the way these battles were won
was by crowd participation.

You know, whoever could
clap and yell the loudest.

[Grand Wizzard Theodore] So it was all up
to us to go on stage, or the Cold Crush

to go on stage and

whoever had the better show that night.

We had routines, dance steps, man.

We were just untouchable, man.

-[Male MC] Say number one
-[Crowd] Number one!

-[male MC] Say, "I feel."
-[crowd] I feel!

-[male MC] Say, "Real good."
-[crowd] Real good!

-We're the best at the bop.
-[crowd] Best at the bop!

-[male MC] It's in the neighborhood.
-[crowd] In the neighborhood!

[male MC] Somebody, and anybody,
and everybody, scream...

[Kool Moe Dee] For Cold Crush
and Fantastic

it's really about how creative are you,

what's your angle, 'cause you can't

predict what a person's
going to do in a battle.

Doesn't matter how dope your rhyme was,
if he's more effective with the crowd,

'cause it's a live,
reciprocal kind of space.

♪ Well I'm the master robber
with the bass in my voice ♪

♪ I talk to you, girl
until your body get moist ♪

♪ It's just me on the mic
I'm doing my job ♪

♪ You like pretty boys
You know, I'm down with the mob... ♪

[Grandmaster Caz]
It was about showmanship,

they was the pretty boys

so they had more going
for them than just being talented.

You know, they looked good up there.

Of course, the girls are lovin' it.

So when you hear screams,
you hear a lot of screams

and most of them is girls though.

When, when you hear screams for us...

[laughs] it's, it's the niggaz in there.

-[male MC] Is it them?
-[crowd] No!

-[male MC] Is it them?
-[crowd] No!

♪ Well who is it, is it, it
Is it, is it? ♪

♪ Who is it, is it? It is us ♪

♪ You know it's us, the Cold Crush ♪

[cheers]

[male MC] Now are y'all ready?

Are you all ready to judge out there?

[crowd] Yeah!

Get ready to say, "Yeah!"

[crowd] Yeah!

[male MC] Now, if y'all think
the Cold Crush Four won the battle,

-let me hear it.
-[cheers]

[male MC] Now,

if y'all think
the Fantastic Romantic Five won,

-let me hear you.
-[loud cheers]

[male MC] Okay, I just want to make sure
of one thing. Who get's this $1000?

[loud cheers]

[male MC] I want to hear it.

[loud cheers]

At the end of the night,

Fantastic Five, we got it, man.

We lost,

okay?

That night,

we lost.

From the day after,

we won.

Everything changed after that.

Because they won the battle that night,

but when people started
listening to the tapes,

and was like, "Wait, hold up...

How they won?"

It was all that flash and all that,
you know what I mean?

And all the girls in the front screaming
and all that.

You know what I mean?

They did they thing,

but the tapes told the real story.

♪ The L, baby, baby ♪

♪ The L, baby, baby ♪

♪ The one who rocks
the world club, baby, baby ♪

♪ Well, it's '82
and everything is fine ♪

♪ But I still got a thought... ♪

[Shad] Grandmaster Caz
and the Cold Crush Brothers

lost the epic battle against
the Fantastic Five

on that legendary July night,

but that wasn't the end of the story.

Bootleg tapes of the battle spread
the rhymes of the Cold Crush Brothers

across the five boroughs like wildfire.

[rap music]

[DMC] I was buying those tapes like drugs

every week in my high school,
ninth grade, Terrence Washington

would come with a suitcase
full of cassette tapes

and he would open it up.

And I got Cold Crush and the Funky 4 + 1,

Fantastic Five, Treacherous Three.

And then when I brought
the infamous battle tape

of the Cold Crush versus
the Fantastic Five,

hearing that was amazin'.

The Fantastic Five were known
for being showmen,

dressed to a tee,

they all looked good,

the girls love 'em.

But Cold Crush came and put on a show,

but without all the glamour.

They put on a show with their attack.

♪ We battle Fantastic
and here's a little gift ♪

♪ So before you go you all can know ♪

♪ Just who you're fucking with ♪

♪ It's Charlie Chase, Tony Tone
and the Cold Crush ♪

I never heard this before.

♪ Motherfuckin' tough-ass four MC's ♪

And they dropped fuckin' um--

[scratching]

[hip hop rapping]

[DMC]
When I heard that,

that was, "Whoa,
these dudes is different."

They were like heavy metal hip hop.

♪ Hey, you better abide ♪

♪ While we rock your ass
on the solo side... ♪

♪ Grandmaster Caz
You are the dap ♪

♪ So get on the mic
and show 'em you're the lord of rap ♪

♪ Well, I'm the Cap of the Four MC execs ♪

♪ And it don't come at all
if it ain't correct ♪

[Kool Moe Dee] Clearly the most dominant

underground group
of all time is Cold Crush.

And a lot of it has to do with
Caz's writing those routines.

In his arsenal he has
the braggadocious rhyme,

but he also has the street-flavored rhyme,
where he's using slang

and things of the street
that people can relate to.

He has the stories in the rhymes,

he had the jokes in the rhymes,
so he had so much in his arsenal.

That kind of cleverness and that kind
of wit. You don't want to battle

with that, because he can say something
about you that have people looking at you

totally different from that point on.

His flow was tight,
the rhymes he was saying, you know.

"Six one and a half, no good at math,

say rhymes to myself
when I'm taking a bath."

And, you know, I was writing little stuff
that I thought was slick,

and when I heard Caz, man,

I just ripped my first rhyme up
like, "Yeah,

I need to rethink my life right now, man.

'Cause, yeah, this ain't it."

[Charlie Ahearn] Grandmaster Caz
was the first real hip hop poet.

He showed me a stack
of these school notebooks

and they were filled with
the most beautiful penmanship

of page after page
after page of his lyrics.

Which were written without cross outs.

Which indicates to me

that he made them up in his head

and then only wrote them down

after they were finished.

[Shad] Did you have influences as far as

putting rhymes together?

[Grandmaster Caz] As a kid

you listen to the music that you hear

and it was one radio station,

they played Barry Manilow and

Terry Jacks and Simon & Garfunkel

and the Beatles and, and Rolling Stones
and all of that.

-What they used to call white boy music.
-[Shad] Yeah.

You know what I mean?

I was deeper into it than I was,
you know, so-called black music.

And it stuck with me.

Because of my appreciation for that music,

and I could see the greatness
in the writing,

that helped me be lyrical.

I look back at those songs
that I listened to growing up

and they gave me that inspiration
to write that way.

When you hear Cold Crush go,

♪ We're here tonight to show you ♪

♪ A brand new song ♪

♪ We just put together
we're the Cold Crush ♪

♪ And you can't bite this ♪

♪ You can't bite this ♪

That's, "I Write the Songs,"

by Barry Manilow.

Now when you hear that shit
with, "Love Rap" playing underneath it,

you're like, "Yo, what is that?!

What is that?!"

That's the type of shit I write.

When I say the last word of my shit,

everybody, "Oh!"

♪ You don't have to bite ♪

♪ Not necessary ♪

♪ The Grandmaster Caz
Got a rhyme library ♪

♪ Rhyme from now until the break of day ♪

♪ Don't have a big mouth
Just a lot to say ♪

♪ So if you run out of rhymes
Talk with me, me, me, GMC ♪

♪ I am the Captain of the Four
and I'm down in here to tell you so ♪

♪ Styles, A.D., yo
You're the number one breaker ♪

♪ Get on the mic and show 'em
that you're the heart maker ♪

Cold Crush tapes became so popular

that they're rivaling
whatever the hottest record is.

But Caz is doing things to the crowd

without a record.

It's still about performing live.

♪ You hear my, you hear my ♪

♪ You hear my, you hear my ♪

♪ You hear my voice on the set ♪

♪ And all that jack ♪

♪ Next step is the avid
put on wax ♪

[Bill Adler] That whole old school era,

starting in '72 and '73,
up until 1979

is something that we treasure.

But there's less documentation of it
simply because

these musicians, these poets,

didn't make any records.

[Kevin Powell] When we talk about why
people don't know some of the early

pioneers of hip hop,

part of it is no different
than we look at early jazz.

A lot of the early jazz musicians
at the turn of the last century

never got recorded.

Some of the early jazz pioneers

actually did not want to be recorded.

Some of the early hip hop folks
didn't want to be recorded either.

They're like, "That's not
what this is about."

It was strictly for parties.

[Grandmixer DXT] Anybody who's from the
first generation of the hip hop circle,

the idea of making a record

was not a reality
in anyone's mind until '79.

[Bill Adler] You can divide hip hop
into a kind of B.C. and an A.D.

with the invention of hip hop on wax.

[lively guitar]

[Shad] Nearly a decade after its birth,

hip hop was still a live performance art
in clubs and parties.

It had yet to be put onto vinyl.

But that was about to change.

And the idea to put hip hop on wax

would not come from within hip hop.

[drums and guitar music]

[Dan Charnas] Sylvia Robinson
got her start in the music industry

as a teenage singer called Little Sylvia.

Her future husband, Joe Robinson,
encouraged her

to form a group with her guitar teacher,

Mickey Baker.

They had a huge hit,
"Love Is Strange".

[Nelson George] She has a real nice
R & B pedigree.

In the '70s, she had a sexy
record called, "Pillow Talk".

So she had a little vibe,
she, she had success.

Joe was her business partner,
he's a rough 'n' tumble guy from Jersey.

And they founded this label,
"All Platinum Records"

out in New Jersey.

[Dan Charnas] But in the mid 1970s,

All Platinum starts getting into
some financial trouble.

Sylvia begs God for a miracle
that's gonna save her business

and save her family.

She goes to this birthday party
for one of her nieces in Harlem.

She walks in the former
Harlem World night club

and she sees her first rapping DJ,

Lovebug Starski.

[disco music]

[Dan Charnas] And she sees Starski
on the mic

doing something like,

♪ Well, the hip, the hop
The hippit, the hippit ♪

♪ The hip hip hop, you don't stop ♪

And she says, you know,

this is it, this is my miracle.

I'm gonna make a record out of this stuff.

You know, get me that guy,
I want to make a record with him.

But Sylvia can't get this Harlem rapper

to come rap on her record,

so she just tells her son, Joey,

to find some folks, you know,

around the way in New Jersey.

[lively guitar strumming]

What's up, guys?

-Hey, man.
-I'm Shad.

What's happening, baby?

-[Shad] Nice to meet you.
-Wonder, Wonder Mike.

-[Master Gee] Have a seat, bro.
-[Shad] Thank you very much.

I was discovered
in front of this place in a, in a '98,

in an Oldsmobile '98 right outside.

[Shad] So who was in that car?

Joey Robinson Jr. and Sylvia Robinson.

Sylvia was looking for people
to rap on a record.

Hank was the guy from the Bronx

that was a rapper, he could rap,
that made pizzas here at Crispy Crust.

The Robinson's tell Hank,
"Close the store up,

we wanna hear you rap."

Hank gets in this brand new '98

with flour, sauce,

sausage juice all over him.

[laughs]

And then he starts rapping,
and then Guy jumps in.

Guy and Hank were going back and forth,

2:00 a.m. on a Friday night.

And she was like, oh, man,
I don't know who to choose.

So I said, Miss Rob, I can rap.

And she was nice enough to hear me out.

She said, "Okay, let me hear
what you got."

I said, "A hip, hop, the hippie,
the hippie dippie..."

And she said, "You know what?
I can't make a decision

between the three of you."

So she did like this,

"I'll join you all three together."

"Come in Monday, we'll cut a record."

♪ I said a hip hop
The hippie, the hippie ♪

♪ To the hip, hip hop
and you don't stop, the rocking ♪

♪ To the bang bang boogie
Say, up jump the boogie ♪

♪ To the rhythm of the boogie... ♪

[Master Gee] When we came in the studio,

Mike, Hank and myself.

I really had no concept
of what recording was like.

We put on headphones,

we decided who was gonna go first
based on what was being said.

Mike said, you know, uh, you know,

"What you hear is not a test,"
so we thought that would be

a good way
to start the song off.

♪ Now what you hear is not a test
I'm rapping to the beat ♪

♪ And me, the groove and my friends
are gonna try to move your feet ♪

[Master Gee] Mike started,

he passed it to Hank,
Hank passed it to me,

I passed it back to Mike,
Mike passed it to Hank.

♪ And next on the mic is my man Hank
Come on, Hank, sing that song ♪

♪ Check it out
I'm Imp the Dimp, the ladies' pimp ♪

♪ The women fight for my delight ♪

♪ But I'm the grandmaster
with the three MC's ♪

♪ That shock the house
with the young ladies ♪

♪ And when you come inside
into the front ♪

♪ You do the freak, spank
and do the bump... ♪

[Master Gee] So we just kept going.
Nobody told us to stop.

They didn't say stop
and we didn't think to stop.

We just kept passing it back and forth,
as if we were doing a party.

♪ I said the M-A-S a T-E-R
A G with a double E ♪

♪ I said I go by the unforgettable name
of the man they call the Master Gee ♪

♪ Well, my name is known
all over the world ♪

♪ By all the foxy ladies
and the pretty girls ♪

♪ I'm goin' down in history
as the baddest rapper... ♪

[Dan Charnas] "Rapper's Delight"
hits the streets

and it's clear

that this was going to be monster.

♪ Then damn, they start
doin' the freak, I said ♪

♪ Damn! Right outta your seat ♪

♪ Then you throw your hands
high in the air... ♪

[Shad] What did you think
the first time you heard

"Rapper's Delight"?

I loved it

and the volcano went boom!

We're here!

It exploded in '79.

[Kurtis Blow] The song was on
every radio station,

every car,

every cab,

every boombox,

every radio out somebody's house

was playing that song 24 hours a day.

I lived in a five-story walk-up,
they played it on every floor.

You know, three cars came by,
they all had it on.

Switch radio stations,
it's on all three stations.

♪ I said, a hip hop, the hippie
The hippie ♪

♪ To the hip, hip hop... ♪

"I said a hip hop, the hippie"

you can go from beginning to end.

♪ The Master Gee and my mellow ♪

You know every word.

It's probably the only rap record
in the history

that everybody knows every word.

You know, they were passing the mic like,
you know, like a park jam

or, you know, a house party type of joint.
Like, it was like some,

like, that real MC vibe, you know,
and I'm, I'm just sitting there telling

my man, like, "No, no, no, no, no,
this wasn't no tape.

Nobody playing no tape on the radio.
I'm like, this is a song, man.

I'm telling you, there's
a real song out, man."

Like, yeah, I was buggin'.

♪ See, I am Wonder Mike
and I'd like to say hello ♪

[Wonder Mike] It took off like wildfire.

In August '79,

I worked at a candy factory.

And in September,

I'm opening up for Parliament Funkadelic.

People call up, "We would like you

to perform your song over here in, uh,

Brussels.

Over here in Copenhagen,
Stockholm, Venezuela."

"We'll fly you in, we'll pay
for your airfare, your hotels

and then we'll pay
for you to do the show."

Really?

Wow.

[Master Gee] Hip hop exploded
because of "Rapper's Delight."

It was the first worldwide, gigantic hit.

Ushered in a whole new genre of music.

♪ Ya rockin' to the beat without a care ♪

♪ With the sure shot MC's
for the affair... ♪

Before us,
there was nothing, man.

We're the first rap stars
in the world, period.

We're the mold.

The whole image of being a rap star
and fancy, being famous, on television,

we were the first ones to do all of that.

And what did other people
think of that record?

Like, I don't mean the ordinary public.

But people that were down with hip hop--

No, the hip hop community was like,
"What the, who the fuck is that?"

Like, "Who the fuck is they?"

Like, "What, what is this shit? It's like
what are they doing to our art form?"

You know what I mean? It's like,

this is the first introduction that people
get to, to, to what we do,

to what we've been doing
for, like, seven years?

We hated it.

That was the worst piece of shit,

stupid-ass song
that every-fucking-body liked,

and then people would come to us

and say, "You know, y'all need
to make a record like that."

And we'd be like, "Well, how we gonna
make a piece of shit like that?"

People thought they invented rapping.

You know what I mean?
Like, wow, 'cause no one had heard this.

And people were really entranced by it.
It was fun.

It was all the things that hip hop

always was.

But it just wasn't done by
the people who created it.

♪ Do it, I'm gonna do it ♪

♪ I'm gonna do it, do it, do it ♪

[Russell Simmons] And they recorded
the rhymes that were Cold Crush,

that were Hip Hollywood,
that were

Starski, that were all of the rhymes
that all these people had borrowed.

They took a lot of them
and just made them into a record.

It's like, "Oh, shit, these niggas
just stole our shit."

Hank was saying a rhyme that we was
hearing at the parties already,

and he, he's saying somebody else's rhyme.

And for us, that's a catastrophic no-no.

There were people who would get beat up
for saying somebody's rhyme.

And here's a record where this guy bites
and actually records it.

Like, that was just the worst thing ever.

Hank robbed somebody,

Grandmaster Caz,

robbed him of the lyrics.

[Wonder Mike] Hank has a great voice,

phenomenal.

But, he really didn't have any rhymes.

And he heard Caz's rhymes
and he was saying Caz's rhymes.

He asked Caz, he said, "Yo, these people
want me to make a record.

Can you help me with some rhymes?"

Hank already knows my shit
from being around me.

Let's say he woulda did
what he was supposed to do,

and told Sylvia, "Listen, I don't rap,
but my friend, Grandmaster Caz,

he's from the Bronx. You know what I mean?
I could bring him out here or whatever."

He never said that.
He just got in the car and was like,

"Yeah, I'm the C-A-S and the O-V-A."
They was like, "Oh shit, that shit's fly.

All right, bet, you down."

♪ Check it out
I'm the C-A-S and the O-V-A ♪

♪ And the rest is F-L-Y ♪

[Grandmaster Caz] The ironic thing
about it is, you know, the last rhyme,

you know, was like never let
an MC steal your rhymes.

[laughs]

♪ Whatever you do in your lifetime
You never let an MC steal your rhymes... ♪

[Dan Charnas] In its day,
"Rapper's Delight"

was the biggest selling

twelve-inch single
of all time.

Most of us are looking at it
and I was, like a one-off.

I didn't see an industry being born.
I thought it was like, "Oh, they're doing

what we're doing and they're doing

a Pollyanna version of it,"
is what I thought.

[Nelson George] The Sugar Hill Gang
record was, it was a phenomenon.

I don't think there was a high school kid

in America who wasn't aware
of that record.

It was a real game-changer.

And so people in the industry,
the record industry, began going like,

"Wow, this rap thing is happening.

It's a novelty,

so we'll make a novelty record."

["Rappin' Rodney" by Rodney Dangerfield]

♪ I'll tell ya, I'm all right now
but last week I was in rough shape ♪

♪ I don't get a break with nothin' ♪

♪ No respect ♪

♪ Friends don't call
My phone don't ring ♪

♪ I don't get a break with anything ♪

♪ What's the matter, Rodney? ♪

♪ Oh, death, where is thy sting? ♪

♪ It's just rappin' Rodney ♪

♪ Ain't that your type... ♪

[Shad] "Rapper's Delight" made people think
that anyone could rap.

And soon dreamers and schemers
from around the world would try

to cash in on the new craze.

♪ Poor ole rappin' Rodney... ♪

[Charlie Ahearn] There was a kind
of a over-saturation.

Hip hop was in McDonald's commercials,

you know, with graffiti-style letters
and things.

It became played. It became something

that was considered a cliche'.

It looked like it was getting ready
to just like be one of those fads.

Hip hop was just gonna,

came on the scene,

everybody loved it,
and it was getting ready to die.

[Jazzy Jay] What saved the culture
of hip hop in its purest form

was when Afrika Bambaataa had said,

"You know what? Let's take it from
the Bronx down to Manhattan."

That kind of opened up
a whole new world for hip hop.

♪ Universal people
looking for the perfect beat ♪

♪ Mortal motivations
looking for the perfect beat ♪

At this time,
I'm involved in the downtown art scene

as a painter, um, myself,

but also turned a lot of people

in the downtown art scene

on to the whole visual art
of hip hop culture.

There was an audience of people
in that downtown world

that were definitely open
to different ideas,

which was the cool thing about downtown
New York culture at that time.

[techno beat]

[Fab 5 Freddy] I was very good friends
with an artist by the name

of Keith Haring.
So I'd be telling Keith, you know,

there's this one guy
named, Afrika Bambaataa,

a former gang leader,

who's also known as the Master of Records.

And Keith, I remember, said,
"Hey, man. Do you think he might want

to come down and spin
at one of our parties?"

And I said, "Sure, I'll, I'll ask him."

[scratching]

[Afrika Bambaataa] Downtown
didn't want to let us in the clubs.

It was the new wave punk rockers

who was the first to open up the doors
for us to, to play in they type of clubs.

People like Fab 5 Freddy
invited us up there

and a lot of the punk
rockers started following me

wherever I was playing at.

And at first everybody thought
there was going to be a riot,

but when the music came on,
everybody was doing them dances.

And you'd see the punk rockers
was starting to learn

a lot of the hip hop dances.

Uh, that's when everything
was going through a big change.

[Grandmaster Caz]
The punk rock scene was cool,

it was kind of wild.
You know what I mean?

But, hey, hip hop was kind of wild.

So we identified with that movement
because it was kind of like

the alternative to rock.

And hip hop was the alternative to disco.

So it was like, we both, you know,
shared that same plight.

And so we started doing
those clubs down there.

Roxy, Negrill,

Peppermint Lounge.

And it was like a perfect marriage.

[mixing & scratching]

[GrandMixer DXT] It wasn't
the aristocrats.

It wasn't the Studio 54 crowd.

You know, we were at Negrill,
you know, the Mudd Club,

that scene, you know,
and so they were into it.

[techno music]

[Bill Adler] Club owners,
people like Michael Holman

and an English promoter named Lady Blue,
were booking them.

So you didn't have to go to the Bronx
to hear rap music.

You could be a college kid at NYU

and walk three blocks away.

And there's Afrika Bambaataa,
you know, on the turntables.

[hip hop dance music]

[Shad] I want to ask you about
going downtown for the first time.

-Oh boy--
-[Shad] And connecting with that world

and what that was like.

Okay, I took it way downtown

to the clubs where it was
primarily white people,

and they were saying,
"Do what you normally do."

Really?

Do what you normally do?
Okay, so here comes The Bells.

Here comes Apache,

here comes all the heat

in a room full of 95%

white people.

What are they going
to do when they hear this?

That shit went off.

[techno dance music]

They was flocking to that.

They couldn't get enough of us.
We were booked all the time down there.

All the time, all the time,
and it opened up a whole new market

for me because now

I was able to play songs
that I couldn't play in the hood.

I was able to play down
there because they got it.

But I would play it in a special way.
I'd play it in

my science way.

So I guess in my mind I was enhancing it,

you know, but it, it worked
extremely well over there.

[Grandmaster Flash] Fab 5 Freddy,

he says, "Flash,

I'm gonna bring somebody up here,
a good friend of mine, you know,

so she could see this."

Fred brings her up to the stage,

and he says, "Flash

meet Blondie."

[Intro to "Rapture" by Blondie]

I'm like,

"Oh, shit."

And she says,

"Honey, I was watching you
for the last couple of minutes

and I'm gonna write a song about you."

♪ Fab Five Freddie told me
everybody's fly ♪

♪ A DJ's spinnin' I said, "My, my" ♪

♪ Flash is fast, Flash is cool ♪

♪ Francois sais pas, Flash says no deux ♪

♪ And you don't stop, sure shot ♪

♪ Go out to the parking lot... ♪

[Grandmaster Flash] People wanted to know
to know who is this Flash guy

that she's talking about.

The interviews was ridiculous.

How do you know her?
Because she was a super star.

She opened up a huge door.

♪ Shoots you dead
and then he eats your head ♪

♪ And then you're in The Man from Mars ♪

♪ You go out at night, eatin' cars ♪

♪ You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too ♪

♪ Mercury and Subaru... ♪

[Russell Simmons] There was always
the cool alternative whites who bought

into the new black phenomenon,
a new cultural phenomenon,

and then they would bring it
to the mainstream.

Even if it wasn't there,
they would recognize it, you know,

and that punk rocks
and alternative people identified with

hip hop.

♪ Toe to toe ♪

♪ Don't move to slow, 'cause the man
from Mars, he's through with cars... ♪

[Fab 5 Freddy] How many people heard rap

for the first time through that record,
without understanding

it was the tip of an iceberg?

[GrandMixer DXT] It was kind of like
the same way

we were when we saw
Kool Herc the first time.

That's what happened
to the downtown people.

They were like, "Wow, this is different.

We got these little ghetto

hood rats down here
playing this good music."

-♪ Beat this! ♪
-[heavy drum beat]

Bam took that first step

and saying, this is what
they're playing downtown.

Bus Boys,

The Sex Pistols.

You know,
Bam would throw in Elvis Presley.

[techno drum music]

[GrandMixer DXT] Bam was the first DJ
that said, "Okay, I'm gonna go really

deeply into this,"

and he started to amass
this incredible collection of beats.

[Afrika Bambaataa] I was playing
a lot of rock and new wave punk

um, to my audience.

And, you know, B52s,

Siouxsie & The Banshees,
Adam Ant,

Talking Heads,

and Kraftwerk, a lot of those
different groups I was playing.

And they said, "Oh wow,
where did you get that from?

How did you get it?"

[Tom Silverman] I went to see about a DJ

and there was kids dancing around
and he's playing short bits

and extending breaks and things.

He played "Big Beat" by Billy Squier,

and then he'd play a Sly Stone record
and a James Brown record.

And then he'd play
a Monkees record.

And all he just was listening to,

is it funky or is not funky?
That was the only question he, he asked.

And that day, I said,
"Do you want to make a record?"

He said, "Yes,"
and I said, "Okay, let's do it."

♪ Party people, party people ♪

♪ Can y'all get funky? ♪

♪ Soul Sonic Force, can y'all get funky? ♪

♪ The Zulu Nation, can y'all get funky? ♪

♪ Yeah, just hit me ♪

♪ Just taste the funk and hit me ♪

♪ Just get on down... ♪

I was heavy into the, the technopop sounds

of Yellow Magic Orchestra,

Kraftwerk,

and I said, you know, I wanted a sound
with these electronic instruments too,

like they was doing.

And putting it to the funk of James Brown,
Sly & The Family Stone

and Uncle George Parliament
Funkadelic Clinton.

Thus became the birth
of that electro-funk sound.

♪ The Soul Sonic Force ♪

♪ Mr. Biggs, Pow Wow and M.C. Globe ♪

♪ We emphasize the show, we got ego
Make this your night, just slip it right ♪

[Jazzy Jay] The idea came
from just a routine

that Soul Sonic Force used to do

and me playing songs,

uh, behind it.

There was two Kraftwerk records.
It was Numbers

and Trans-Europe Express

and "Super Sporm,"

was by Captain Rock.

And those three songs were selected
to be the bedding

of the song we call "Planet Rock."

It was so different than what
everybody else was doing.

♪ The Soul Sonic Force ♪

["Planet Rock" by Soul Sonic Force]

[Tom Silverman] But the spirit
in the studio was one of experimentation.

Let's try this, let's try this,

and we didn't really have an intention

for it to come out any particular way.
We just wanted it to be a representation

of the way Bambaataa DJ's
so that it would have

the sounds of a few different breaks.

And we wanted to use
this new technology.

It was the first hit
record to use a 808.

And after that there was probably
a thousand records that imitated the beat

that we used on that record.

[techno funk hip hop]

[Afrika Bambaataa] We had the 808's,
we had the Synclavier synthesizers,

and John Robie and his
playing the synthesizer

as funky as Kraftwerk.

That way we had with the Emulator,
they did the scratching sounds,

so we was getting heavy into all
the new technology that was coming out.

[John Schloss] Planet Rock was huge

on a lot of levels.

In terms of its production style,
it was very important.

But I think it was also important because
of the hip hop philosophy behind it.

And specifically that Bambaataa
was drawing on a group like Kraftwerk

indicated that there were no boundaries.

And the idea of there being no boundaries

was a fundamental part of hip hop.

It's like every hip hop
song is supposed to sample

from somebody you wouldn't expect.

And that's the way it's been ever since.

[Nelson George] It's futuristic,

it's dance-able,

it's weird,

based on what everyone thought
hip hop was supposed to be.

And I think that's why
it was so impactful.

The sound of Planet Rock
is like a spaceship landing in the ghetto.

[techno beat]

[Shad] Bambaataa's futuristic funk

transported the club to Planet Rock,

but the B-boys

still resided on planet Earth.

And back in the Bronx

things were getting worse.

[woman] What are you trying to do for us?

[Reagan] I'm trying to tell you!

[woman] What can you?

[Sal Abbatiello] All of a sudden,
hip hop's blowing up downtown

but meanwhile in the South Bronx,

there was no jobs for anybody.

I mean, there must have been about
25 to 30 percent unemployment,

so this whole generation would struggle
for many years in this economic downfall.

There were so many abandoned buildings
for blocks and blocks.

I mean, when Reagan came
to look at the Bronx,

he said it looked like
an atomic bomb hit it.

[Kevin Powell] When you talk about
the Bronx, New York,

what did the Reagan era
mean to poor people?

You know, I mean, of all backgrounds.

You are getting your butt kicked.

And then a big fucking helicopter
came out of somewhere

and dropped a whole fucking lot
of crack

down on our city.

Coincidentally.

All right.

The shit was crazy.

You would have been taking drugs, too,
you bullshittin'.

[Intro to "The Message"
by Grandmaster Flash]

And we've got a story about some music
that's being heard across the land.

This new, young black group.

[female newscaster] They are called,
this group,

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

Their sound and their fury prove
that music could be used to get across

a serious message.

Not coincidentally, the name of their song
is, "The Message",

a hard-edged anthem of the urban ghetto.

♪It's like a jungle sometimes♪

♪It makes me wonder how
I keep from going under♪

♪ It's like a jungle sometimes ♪

♪ It makes me wonder how
I keep from going under ♪

[Shad] You knew when
you wrote "The Message",

it wasn't a party song.

-Right.
-So what inspired you to write that?

The concept of that rhyme,

it came from uh, uh, uh,

Stevie Wonder, "Living For the City".

A boy is born in hard time, Mississippi,

but I said, "A child is born
with no state of mind,"

and then I just went from there.

Nobody understood

the scope of what "The Message" could be.

Until then, every song that came
out was a party song.

Initially, we didn't want to do the record
because it was basically

something that we wasn't used to,
it was a non-party record.

But we did it, you know,

because it was socially relevant.

It had something to say.

♪ Broken glass everywhere ♪

♪ People pissin' on the stairs
You know they just don't care ♪

♪ I can't take the smell
Can't take the noise ♪

♪ Got no money to move out
I guess I got no choice... ♪

"Rats in the front room,
roaches in the back,

junkie in the alley
with the baseball bat.

Tried to get away
but I couldn't get far,

'cause a man with the tow
truck repossessed my car."

You know, them lines like that is

ferocious,

they, they cut deeper,

they, they poignant,

they need to be said.

"Don't push me

'cause I'm close to the edge."

♪ I'm tryin' not to lose my head
huh, huh, huh ♪

♪ It's like a jungle sometimes ♪

♪ It makes me wonder how
I keep from going under ♪

[Kool Moe Dee] I've heard of thousands
and thousands and thousands of rhymes.

I still have not heard

a better rhyme,

from beginning to end, than,
"A child is born with no state of mind."

♪ A child is born with no state of mind ♪

♪ Blind to the ways of mankind ♪

♪ God is smilin' on you... ♪

That's a story.

It's a message.

It's poignant.

It's hip hop.

It's, it's like everything that an MC

could aspire to be in one rhyme.

♪ You'll admire
all the number-book takers ♪

♪ Thugs, pimps and pushers
and the big money-makers ♪

[Grandmaster Flash] That song
is like a window

into urban America

for people that have
never seen urban America

or too afraid to go in.

That's what that song was.

It was more powerful than politics,
more powerful than religion,

more powerful than
um, the news media.

It's information, it's game,
it's knowledge.

That was very attractive to me

because,

to me a lot of rap was silly.

I had never heard...

information.

I had heard,

"Let's party, let's party, let's party,"

but I had never heard a message.

[Kevin Powell] It was jarring.

It was shocking.

The song didn't offer any solutions.

It didn't necessarily even offer any hope.

It just was like,

"This is what we're living in."

It was reaching down

to kids like me and saying,
"Hey, this is where you're gonna end up

if you don't have a plan."

[Kool Moe Dee] The concept was a great
concept that shifted the paradigm

of what types of records would be made,

and what kinds of things
could be talked about.

[Nelson George] This was a record that
allows people to see the potential

of this as an art form.

It really shows that hip hop
could be very explicitly about politics,

could be about pain, and about anger,
and about all of these things that,

before that it really hadn't
been that much about.

I remember Rolling Stone,
which had really never

paid much attention
to hip hop at that point,

gave that record, like,
five stars or something.

So even people who were like,
anyone who was a, a hater or disbeliever,

they all, their ears had to perk up

and go, "Wow,
this is something different."

And when radio started playing it,

the song really took off

and it became the first
critically-acclaimed hip hop song,

to whereas people that,

they didn't like hip hop,
even to this day there will be people

that never really liked hip hop

but they like, "The Message."

It actually changed the landscape.
That broadened the horizons

of what hip hop could be.

♪ It's like a jungle sometimes ♪

♪ It makes me wonder how I keep
from going under, huh, huh, huh ♪

♪ It's like a jungle sometimes ♪

♪ It makes me wonder how I keep
from going under, huh, huh, huh... ♪

[Shad] "The Message" proved
that hip hop had the depth

to move beyond the party.

But it also represented
something much bigger.

Ten years after first making noise,

hip hop had finally discovered
the power of its voice,

and just in time.

Because the coming decade
would bring Reaganomics,

crack,

AIDS,

the war on drugs,

and gang violence.

And urban America
would never be the same.

The people needed a new voice,

and hip hop was ready.

So now let me tell you

about our golden age.

[techno hip hop beats]