Hip Hop History..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

By Kounter Kulture

Around 1929 the South Bronx was certainly not what it is today. It was a place where Irish, Jewish and Italian families raised their children and did their best to maintain their cultural traditions, while living in what was so often referred to as the "New World." Despite the Great Depression that was going on at the time, the future didn't look so bad, for at least they had their own communities – or so they thought!

In 1929 the New York Regional Plan Association had something else in mind for the future. They envisioned Manhattan as a centre of great wealth and to provide the necessary workforce to fuel this affluent centre, a massive expressway would be built that would connect Manhattan to the suburbs. This way commuters could literally drive "over" the Bronx and whatever other areas spanned across this 7 mile experiment.

Robert Moses, who was recognized as the most powerful Urban Builder of all time, was at the head of this project after World War II. He was a man who wanted to make history by any means necessary. And indeed he has done just that, but the price has been higher than just the cost for the raw materials. In the path of this expressway were those communities who dreamed of a better future. 60,000 Bronx residents were simply told that they had a few months to move out and were given $200 per room as a compensation. Thus began the exodus of the Irish, Jewish and Italians out of the Bronx.

Meanwhile, in Manhattan, another exodus was to take place. Under the guise of "Urban Renewal" poor Blacks and Hispanics were forced to leave and relocate to the South Bronx and East Brooklyn. To house them, towering flats were built on a massive scale. The Bronx River Projects and the Millbrook Projects both contained 1,200 units on fifteen floors; the Bronxdale Projects contained 1,500 units and the Patterson Projects rose to 1,700 units.

Those Italian, Irish and Jewish families who were not able to leave so quickly began to form gangs that attacked the incoming Afro-American, Afro-Caribbean and Hispanic families. In turn, these newcomers formed their own gangs in self-defence. Tensions were high on both ends. Organizations like the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords did what they could to mobilise the communities to protest for better services, but pressure from the authorities and conflicts with the gangs soon ended those efforts.

To make matters worse, industry was moving out of the area and factories were being left abandoned. As a result, 600,000 manufacturing jobs simply disappeared. People were left to survive on social welfare with most getting less than $2,500 a year.

In came the slumlords!

Slumlords began buying up apartment buildings and charging unreasonable rent prices. In fact, the object of the exercise was to force people to move out. When they couldn't pay rent, the electricity and water were turned off. When the building was emptied out, the slumlords would pay some poor street thug $50 to set the building on fire and would then go collect $150,000 from their insurance company. This became very widespread and caught the attention of politicians – but for the wrong reasons!

Because these fires were reported as arsons, politicians like Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan began making statements like, "People in the South Bronx don't want housing or they wouldn't burn it down." This lead to them forming a concept known as "benign neglect." In other words, if the people in the South Bronx don't care about their community, then why should we give them any funding to build it up? Why not just "neglect" them until they go away? Of course the slumlords certainly weren't going to step forward and volunteer the truth of the matter that they were the ones burning down the buildings to collect insurance, and who would believe some poor, young kid from the streets.

As a result of this "benign neglect" being put into effect, funding for social services were cut. On top of that, seven fire companies were closed down and thousands of fire fighters were laid off. As a result, more than 30,000 fires were set in the South Bronx which destroyed 43,000 housing units! Entire blocks were turned into ghost towns!

Amongst these ashes Afrika Bambaataa was raised. And from these ashes Afrika Bambaataa would see and participate in the coming together of a Hiphop Kulture.

Afrika Bambaataa was born Bambaataa Kahim Aasim to Jamaican and Barbadian parents. Although it is not clearly known when he was born, it is safe to speculate that his birth took place between 1957 and 1960. What is clear however is that Bambaataa spent his earilest years witnessing the turbulent and dynamic Age of Revolution (1961-1971).

Although he was born in Manhattan, he was raised in the Bronx River Projects by his mother, who was a nurse and came from a family that was very involved in the international Black cultural and liberation movements. His uncle, Bambaataa Bunchinji was a Black nationalist and many others in his family were followers of the Nation of Islam.

From an early age, Bambaataa would appreciate the power of selecting music to play for the crowd. His mother's record collection would include diverse styles from Miriam Makeba, Mighty Sparrow, Joe Cuba, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Sly Stone and the Family and much more. The young Bambaataa would place his speakers in the window of their ground floor flat in the Bronx River Projects and blast his music for the kids who hung around on the asphalt out front.

As a young child, Bambaataa was greatly influenced by the 1964 movie classic Zulu, and after seeing it, he vowed that one day he would have his own group called Zulu Nation. But when the movie ended and he looked outside of his window, he realized that this dream would have to be put on hold.

White gangs were forming alliances with one another to prey on youth of color. Smack was flooding into the Projects like a tidal wave. Black and Puerto Rican gangs had to deal not only with the White gangs, but also with the junkies, as well as each other. It wouldn't be long before Bambaataa would be drawn into this world.

At first he became part of a gang known as P.O.W.E.R. which stood for People's Organization for War and Energetic Revolutionaries. P.O.W.E.R. imitated and used the rhetoric of the Black Panthers but their main goal was to avoid being overrun by the Black Spades, who dominated the nearby Bronxdale Projects. But P.O.W.E.R. didn't last long as the violent struggle against the White gangs and the police lead its leadership to go underground. This lead Bambaataa to join the Black Spades and convert the Bronx River Projects into Black Spades territory. Having successfully done this, he was appointed by the leader of the Black Spades to the high position of Warlord, whose chief duties involved stockpiling the arsenal, training the members in fighting skills and military techniques, and negotiating times and places for rumbles. He also became the Master of Records.

With the Bronx River Projects now under his watchful eye and leadership, the groundwork was set for the future rise of the Universal Zulu Nation, as well as the coming together of Hiphop Kulture.

Out of the ashes of a burnt down Bronx came the widespread presence of youth street gangs. Those Projects and areas that did survive the fires would become the breeding grounds for gang recruitment. And the destroyed abandoned buildings would become the Clubhouses where these gangs would set up their headquarters.

One of the principle figures that influenced the spread of gangs and how they functioned in the Bronx was Benjamin Melendez. Benjamin's family was living in the slums of Manhattan when in 1961, Robert Moses began implementing his "Urban Renewal" plan to clear out the poor families to make room for offices and high-rise apartments. The Melendez family ended up in the Bronx.

Benjamin joined a small gang called the Cofon Cats but soon got tired of hanging out with them. When his family moved to the Crotona Park area, which is close to the Bronx River Projects, he decided to form his own clique. After coming up with several names – Seven Immortals, Savage Nomads, Savage Skulls – he finally settled on Ghetto Brothers.

Later, other members of the Ghetto Brothers would go on to use those other names to form their own gangs in other areas: Seven Immortals, Savage Nomads, The Renegades, Roman Kings, Taino Brothers, Boricua Brothers and the Savage Skulls, who would later become the second largest gang in the Bronx – the largest being the Black Spades. Even the Black Spades can be traced back to Benjamin as before they became the Black Spades, they were known as the Savage Seven.

Other gangs that sprung up in the area were the Mongols, Dirty Dozen, Peacemakers, Turbans and the Chingalings. Those few remaining poor Whites formed the Authur Avenue Boys, Golden Guineas, War Pigs and the Grateful Dead. Most of the Blacks were in the Black Spades and the other gangs were mostly Hispanics.

Although gangs in those days were still violent and territorial, they functioned differently than those of today. The Ghetto Brothers emerged in a time when the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords were in the slums fighting for the implementation of their Ten-Point Programs. In fact, the Ghetto Brothers supported the Young Lords in their efforts to provide services to the community and to try and clean it up. So much so that they began to dress up militantly, wearing Black Berets and growing their hair long.

When smack was creating big problems in the neighbourhoods because of the junkies who would rob, steal and maim to get high, the gangs stepped in and started wiping them out. The Ghetto Brothers protested the quality of health care at the local hospital, which they called the "Butcher Shop." They questioned why there were no jobs or recreation facilities for the youth and spoke out against corrupt politicians. They even forced slumlords to allow them to enter the flats so that they could clean them up. Melendez had a different vision for the future of gangs.

But what makes Benjamin unique to Hiphop Kulture is that he had a passion for music. In fact, "Ghetto Brothers" was originally more than just a gang name, it was also the name of their Latin-Rock band, consisting of himself and his real brothers: Ulpiano, Victor and Robert Melendez. They released their only album "Ghetto Brothers Power Fuerza" around 1972.

Even more important to his influence on Hiphop Kulture were the unprecedented moves that he made which led up to the release of that eight-song album. Having been influenced by those movements that surrounded him, Benjamin decided it was time to unite the rivalling gangs.

In 1968, J. Edgar Hoover began to lay out his objectives for the FBI COINTELPRO. He wanted to wipe out the Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam, the Young Lords Party and many others. Around the country, members of these movements were rounded up and placed in prison. In New York, 21 members of the local chapter of the Black Panther Party were arrested and sent to jail for two years before the charges were dropped and they were released. One of those members was Afeni Shakur, mother of Tupac Amaru Shakur.

With these groups gone, the gangs began to turn more on themselves rather than on the powers-that-be. Benjamin decided to make a move. He removed the Warlord position from the Ghetto Brothers and replaced it with Peace Counselor. A half-Black, half-Puerto Rican ex-junkie known as Black Benjie would be the first to take on this responsibility.

Black Benjie would go around to other gangs and invite them to block parties in the Ghetto Brothers' territory. The Ghetto Brothers opened up their borders in the name of peace. They played their music and no one got hurt. People just came to have fun.

But this wasn't enough. Gang violence was increasing and three Ghetto Brothers got shot. Benjamin's brother Victor, who was now President of the Savage Nomads, was stabbed. Black Benjie was sent out to try and calm things down. He met up with the Mongols, Seven Immortals and the Black Spades, who together were on their way to a rumble against the Savage Skulls. Black Benjie tried to convince them to talk about a truce but one of the Seven Immortals pulled out a pipe and another pulled out a machete. The Ghetto Brothers had no weapons, so Black Benjie ordered them to run, but he was not able to get away. He was bashed in the head with the pipe and fell to the ground, where they continued to beat him. He later died in the hospital.

Melendez was left with no choice but to retaliate. All the gangs were preparing for an all out war. Yet Melendez said, "No, Black Benjie died to bring us peace." Everyone was ready to override his decision. Even ally gangs leaders were ready to make moves if the Ghetto Brothers didn't. So Benjamin called for a meeting of all the leaders to organize a gang truce. There was a massive turn-out and everyone got a chance to air their differences and grievances. One of the most prominent and powerful speakers was Bam Bam, the leader of the Black Spades, who was being guarded by his Warlord, Afrika Bambaataa.

After all of the anger was vented and ideas expressed, a truce was agreed upon. All the gang leaders signed it and borders were opened up. Afrika Bambaataa was inspired by what took place that evening and held on to the spirit of the truce. Soon after, Bam Bam went to fight in the Vietnam war and Bambaataa would become the President of the Black Spades.

After the truce, the Ghetto Brothers continued to have their block parties, inviting other gang members to join in peace. Although they may not have had turntables upon which they cut and mixed vinyl, we must recognise, whenever possible, the pioneers of ideas. The Ghetto Brothers would plug the amps for their instruments and speakers into the lampposts in the parks, long before DJ Kool Herc did it with his sound system. And even Afrika Bambaataa would later use the idea of uniting rival gangs through block parties with music, dance, and graffiti art.

The Ghetto Brothers may have never rapped, beatboxed, spun a record, did a head-spin or tagged their name on a train, but they set the stage for DJ Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa.

Clive Campbell was born in Jamaica, the first of six children. The year was 1955 and Kingston wasn't the nicest place to live in with all of the political turmoil. Clive's parents, Nettie and Keith, did their best to provide for their children and to distance themselves from the troubles. Clive spent his early years growing up in Trenchtown.

Keith Campbell and Clive's younger sister Cindy were both record collectors. And their collection spanned from reggae to soul to country. Clive would sing along to the American songs in an effort to learn the accent. He would also sneak around to check out the Sound Systems blasting music all night. King George was the famous Selector in his area and he dreamed of one day being like him.

His mother Nettie began studying and working in New York and thought that it would be a better place for her children to be raised, for there were more opportunities. And at the time, many Jamaicans were already migrating to New York. So Clive was the first of the children to join his mother in 1967.

The Campbells lived on East 178th Avenue, not far from Crotona Park where the Ghetto Brothers and other gangs roamed. Living in New York was a big change for Clive and being from Kingston didn't help. This was pre-Bob Marley, so it wasn't cool to be Jamaican yet. At school he was fiercely teased for the way that he talked and dressed and on the way home he had to avoid certain streets where Jamaicans were being thrown into garbage bins!

Clive started hanging out with the Five Percenters, who introduced him to New York's Street Language, as well as sharing with him the Science of Self-Knowledge. The Five Percenters, having a different awareness than the average New Yorker, had a natural respect for Clive, for in their eyes, he was just another Blackman like themselves. Clive also started hanging out with the Cofon Cats, the same gang that Benjamin Melendez joined when he lived in that area. But just like Benjamin, Clive quickly got bored with them and came to realize that gang members were really cowards who could not stand on their own. Besides, he had other things on his mind – like music!

Clive would spend a lot of time listening to the radio, especially the Black stations, WBLS and WWRL. But it was at the house-parties that his mother brought him to that he would hear the kind of music that could rock a jam – Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson – and most importantly, James Brown. Clive was hypnotized by the atmosphere at those house-parties and would pay close attention to the little things taking place that the average person simply would pay no mind to. In Kingston, he could only hear the Sound System from the outside because he was too young to get in. But now he was in the party and absorbing it all like a sponge.

Around this time, Taggin was getting popular in the area and so he joined the quest for name recognition by taggin CLYDE AS KOOL on the walls. Since people couldn't remember "Clive" he just told them his name was Clyde, which was easier to remember because at the time the New York Knicks had Clyde Frazier playing for them. The KOOL part came from the cigarette ads that depicted these James Bond-type, super-cool men who obviously smoked KOOL cigarettes. Soon he would hang out with one of Graffiti Art's legendary supercrews, the EX-VANDALS.

Clive was also very athletic. He ran track, lifted weights and played rough Street Ball in the playgrounds. His mates would take the piss by calling him "Hercules" because of his bullish power-drives to the hoop. But Clive didn't like this name because it just didn't sound hip enough. So he shortened it and told everyone to just call him Herc. That's when he dropped the CLYDE from his tag and added HERC, becoming known as KOOL HERC.

Graffiti Art was forming long before Kool Herc decided to tag up CLYDE AS KOOL. In fact, the art of writing on walls can be traced back to Ancient Egypt and beyond. But when it comes to things like Taggin, Piecin, Burnin, Bombin and Throw-Ups... these are unique to Hiphop Kulture.

Taggin up your name actually did not begin in New York, it began in Philadelphia around 1965 when a young Black kid named Cornbread started writing and painting CORNBREAD on the walls of subway stations in an attempt to attract the attention of a girl he liked named Cynthia. The letters he used were basic but began to evolve over time into the Gangster Style. Around 1968 CORNBREAD's protégé TOP CAT brought the Gangster Style to New York, where it was picked up by a kid named Julio from 204th Street.

Julio started taggin up JULIO 204 to represent where he was from, which ushered in the new style of taggin your block. A young Greek-American kid from 183rd Street in Washington Heights named Demetrius took it to the next level when he started taggin his nickname and street, TAKI 183, on moving vehicles like ice-cream trucks. Also, because he worked as a messenger boy, which took him all over the city, he was able to spread his tag all over New York. This caught the attention of the New York Times, who tracked him down for an interview.

Demetrius told the reporters that he simply did it for the attention, much as Cornbread did when he first started taggin in Philly. When the Times printed the article, Taggin was popularized in the inner-city and overnight tags started popping up everywhere – CLIFF 159, JUNIOR 161, CAY 161, CHE 159, EVA 62 and many other young kids were picking up fat makers and spray paint cans to get some attention as well.

Although it may have been the Age of Revolution (1961-1971) for the many philosophers and revolutionaries who wanted to change the world, it was the Age of Darkness for the younger generation who lived in that world that needed to be changed. While these great revolutionary figures stood in the spotlight, behind them was a long shadow covering many young people who also wanted to be recognized. And now they would have their chance.

Taggin became more than just a way to get attention; for some it became a mission, an adventure. As the Taggin pioneer SPAR ONE put it, "You started on your street, then you went to the buses. You take over your neighbourhood, then you take over your homeline, then you take over your division, then you take over all city."

Soon the quest was on to put your tag in the most visible of places. Young kids would dare to hang off of bridges and buildings from ropes to get their tags up. The competition raged on until the female Graffiti pioneer STONEY tagged up the Statue of Liberty!

Taggin also caught on fast with gangs. Obviously, one of the main objectives of any gang is to mark their territory. Soon, rival gang members could no longer use the excuse that they did not know they had crossed the lines.

Then Taggin turned into Piecin and more colour was introduced to what you would tag up. But something else happened as well – racial and class unity! The EX-VANDALS – the legendary Graffiti supercrew from Brooklyn – started putting up their Pieces along multiple trainlines which went far outside of the inner-city area. Soon White kids from the Upper East Side were learning the art from Black kids in the Bronx. And Brooklyn Latinos were learning from working class White kids from Queens. Multiethnic crews became normal.

Soon "Writers' Tables" began to form in the school lunch halls. Those with the most skill and whose Pieces were up in the boldest places could sit at the designated table, everyone else had to stand if they wanted to get down. Outside of school on Atlantic Avenue, 149th Street and other spots, "Writers' Benches" formed where young kids from all over would meet up to compare their Blackbooks and plan missions for the "Ghost Yard."

The "Ghost Yard" was a train depot on the Northern tip of Manhattan where many of the cities trains would come to be serviced and prepared for the next day's runs. For young 10, 11 or 12 year olds, this was indeed one hell of a mission. First you had to get there by travelling through the gang territories, then you had to get through the fence, pass the dogs and security guards and finally find the best train car upon which you will put up your Piece. Mind you, if you wanted to put up a nice Piece, that meant having to carry a big, heavy backpack full of cans. It also meant spending a good deal of time Piecin it up and hoping that you didn't have to abandon it half way through if the guards came. If you managed to get your Piece up, the journey home was easy as you sat thinking about the bragging rights you would have to display the next day in school.

Then it was time for the next generation of style. But this would come in a very unusual way. In 1972, the city's Anti-Graffiti Campaigns began and by November 1973 the Metropolitan Transit Authority had finished repainting their fleet of 6,800 train cars. Every trace of Graffiti was gone! You would think that the Writers would have been upset, but they were indeed overjoyed! This meant that now you would not have to waste paint and time painting over an old Piece – you could literally start from scratch. In fact, the whole movement could start from scratch. And so the Writers' Tables and Writers' Benches were bringing together the best of the best – PHASE 2, RIFF, TRACEY 168, BLADE, DONDI, KASE 2, SEEN.

The new style that emerged added outlines, more colors, patterns, highlights, depth, shadows, arrows. Names were bubblized, gangsterized, mechanized, dissected, bisected, cross-sected, fused, bulged, curved, dipped, clipped, chipped and disintegrated. They were filled with shooting stars, dripping blood, energy fields, polygons and some floated on clouds, zipped with motion lines or shot out from flames. And they got bigger and bigger and bigger! They went from Window-Down to Top-to-Bottom to End-to-End to Whole Cars. They even went to entire Productions, like the "Freedom Train" which covered 10 entire cars Bombed by CAINE 1, MAD 103 and FLAME ONE.

What happened next almost destroyed the Graffiti movement in New York. Funding for the Metropolitan Transit Authority was cut and so the security in the "Ghost Yard" diminished. You would imagine that this would be good news for the Writers. But when the fleet of newly painted trains rolled out, it drew the attention of hundreds of other inexperienced kids who wanted to get their name up as well. There were two obvious problems; one was space and the other was security. Thus was born the "Throw-Ups" which were basically intended to get your tag up quick. It was generally two colours and the letters went back to the basics.

So what's wrong with that? Imagine you sit down for a week putting together your nicest Piece. You go through the trouble of getting your paint, getting to the train yard and spending the night Burnin your Piece onto a freshly painted train. Two days later, you invite your friends to check it out and all you see is this ugly two-tone Throw-Up. The morale of the true artists was falling rapidly, and some Writers were simply walking away from the game.

But some started hearing of a place where they could go to not only compare the fresh Pieces on the walls with those in their own and others' Blackbooks, but they could also see some amazing new dancers and hear some amazing new sounds without having to worry about the police or gang rivalry. It was known as the Park Jams and the grand hosts were none other than DJ Kool Herc or Afrika Bambaataa.

It would take a little time and strategy before Bambaataa would be able to have his peaceful Park Jams. But the time was soon coming when he would be able to live up to the meaning of his name Bambaataa, which means Affectionate Leader.

After the gang truce of 1971, Bam Bam (still leader of the Black Spades) gave Bambaataa the assignment of expanding the Black Spades further beyond the Bronx River and Bronxdale Projects. Having always been such a fearless and charismatic youth, he implemented an interesting tactic. He would go to each area where other gangs ruled and make at least five friends from those gangs. And he did this so succes

8:08 AM 

1 Comments

(Add Comment) |

0 Kudos

Translate

Powered by

English

Albanian

Arabic

Bulgarian

Catalan

Chinese

Croatian

Czech

Danish

Dutch

Estonian

Filipino

Finnish

French

Galician

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hindi

Hungarian

Indonesian

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Latvian

Lithuanian

Maltese

Norwegian

Polish

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Serbian

Slovak

Slovenian

Spanish

Swedish

Thai

Turkish

Ukrainian

Vietnamese