THESE VIDEOS ARE WORDS OUT OF MY MOUTH.....
www.BostonBBoy.com
Breaking/BBoying, dancing in general, physical therapy, kinesiology.
Tell you the truth, I'd like to meet that B-Girl that wants to spend the rest of her life with me, or at least for a portion of it........She has to be in school or at least doing something with her life....She has to care about herself and others....She has to wanna work out and exercise with me or seperately....She has to want to go out and dance here and there and travel, but sometimes she has to know when to chill and stay in too watch a good flick......ATTENTION THIS IS FOR YOU MYSPACE FREAKS... ...just because you are not in my top 8, does not mean I don't love you as much as the people in my top 8. So don't care. cause I don't...
SUPPORT MERCURY RECORDS TO IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS! Real Hip-Hop, b-boy breaks, funk, soul, dance music, break beats, electro funk, freestyle. No Drum N Bass or Techno, but I am open minded. Thats what i dance too.... Rock N Roll will never die! What i listen to is &l & Esoteric, Mr. Lif, Akrobatik, Sage Francis, Swollen Members, Old Eminem (Not his new music), Louis Logic, Apathy, Celph Titled, Rise, Del, Virtuoso, Jedi-Mind Tricks, Demigodz is my favorite rap group. ALSO....... Hit me up if you want to know the name of a song, or the artist. I might tell you....REMEMBER HAVE A SAMPLE READY....
My dad is a movie buff. I am not as bad as he is, But i like a good movie....Watched plenty of different kinds. you name a movie, I wont be a bad critic....
This would be me if i was on family guy...
Peace to Kounter Kulture for the article, Enjoy!Hip Hop History: Part 1 - 6HIP HOP HISTORY: PART 1by Kounter KultureAround 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 didnt 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 couldnt 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 dont want housing or they wouldnt burn it down. This lead to them forming a concept known as benign neglect. In other words, if the people in the South Bronx dont 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 werent 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.Peace! Kounter Kulture http://www.soundclick.com/kounterkultureHIP HOP HISTORY: PART 2By Kounter Kulture Hip Hop Culture HistoryAfrika 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 mothers 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 influence 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 wouldnt 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 Peoples 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. didnt 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.Peace! Kounter Kulture http://www.soundclick.com/kounterkultureHIP HOP HISTORY: PART 3By Kounter KultureOut 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. Benjamins 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 wasnt enough. Gang violence was increasing and three Ghetto Brothers got shot. Benjamins 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 didnt. 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.Peace! Kounter KultureHIP HOP HISTORY: PART 4By Kounter KultureClive Campbell was born in Jamaica, the first of six children. The year was 1955 and Kingston wasnt the nicest place to live in with all of the political turmoil. Clives 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 Clives 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 didnt 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 Yorks 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 couldnt 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 Arts 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 didnt like this name because it just didnt sound hip enough. So he shortened it and told everyone to just call him Herc. Thats when he dropped the CLYDE from his tag and added HERC, becoming known as KOOL HERC.Peace! Kounter KultureHIP HOP HISTORY: PART 5By Kounter KultureGraffiti 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 CORNBREADs protg 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 days 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 didnt 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 citys 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 whats 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.Peace! Kounter KultureHIP HOP HISTORY: PART 6By Kounter KultureIt 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 successfully that not only could he walk wherever, but if he ever had any problem, he could easily gather a force of 300-400 gang members from different areas to resolve the problem.He then began studying the historical tactics of Napoleon and Shaka Zulu in school and applying these strategies to the conquering of other territories. Soon the Black Spades stretched from Bronx River Project to the Soundview, Castle Hill, Monroe and Patterson Projects. And it didnt stop there. Black Spades spread into the projects of Harlem, Brooklyn and Queens. It was by far the largest gang in New York. All the while, efforts were constantly made to stay true to the original truce that the Ghetto Brothers called for.Unfortunately, the White gangs were not part of that truce and soon the tensions reached critical levels at the Stevenson High School. Bambaataa lead a mass united force to the area and stomped out the White gangs. But he now began to question his power and what he was doing with it. Bambaataa began to wonder if he could use these strategies to create peace instead of war. He decided that music might be the way to go about it.Deejays were already present throughout the Projects and so Bambaataa took the opportunity to become an apprentice to two former Black Spades who were now Deejays Kool DJ D from the Bronx River Projects and Disco King Mario from the Bronxdale Projects. Soon Bambaataa would begin having his own parties at the Bronx River Community Centre.With Bam Bam gone off to Vietnam, Bambaataa made his first move as an "affectionate leader" to get young kids away from the gang life. He started the Bronx River Organization as an alternative to being in the Black Spades. He emphasized to the members that it was not a gang, but rather an organization seeking peace. He encouraged members not to look for trouble, but if trouble came to them that they should fight like hell.Just as he did with his previous mission, Bambaataa began forming alliances with other Deejays and soon he would drop Bronx River and simply call it The Organization which allowed it to gather members from other areas, as well as to spread to other areas. Once again, the conquest was a success and this time it had the full support of the community because members of the community would rather see kids dancing than fighting and killing each other. But things took a turn for the worst.In January 1975, Bambaataas young cousin, Soulski, was shot dead by the police. A month later, a 14 year Black kid was shot dead, again by the police. A gang known as The Peacemakers declared war on the police. Leaders from all of the other gangs called Bambaataa and told him they were ready when he was. Community leaders pleaded with Bambaataa to not retaliate and to wait and see what happens with the court hearings. Bambaataa was now where Benjamin Melendez found himself when Black Benjie died. But this was worse because going to war against the police force could have grave consequences. Bambaataa agreed to wait for the trails. But the cops were acquitted!Anger swept across the gangland, but Bambaataa retreated his forces in search of a better way. Young kids had little to believe in at this point. At any moment, there life could be taken away and nothing would be done about it. Community leaders, social workers, Christian preachers no longer had the words to reach the minds of these poor, fatalistic kids. The only ones able to be heard anymore were the Nation of Islam, the Five Percenters and the followers of Imaan Isa, from the Ansaaru Allah movement in Brooklyn. Bambaataa could see why these teachings were necessary at that time, but he also saw their limitations. So he continued to search for another way.He entered the Housing Authority Essay Writing Contest and won a trip to Africa and Europe. For a young kid who had never really been that far outside of the Bronx, going to these far off places and seeing the different cultures opened his eyes to a different worldview. His meeting with a Zulu Chief in Africa served to have a great impact as he was told of how gang life in the Bronx was not so different than the tribal wars going on in Africa and around the world.Bambaataa returned to the Bronx with an optimistic sense that something could be done to unite not only the gangs of New York, but perhaps even the whole world. It was time to take his childhood dream off of the back burner! He changed his name to Afrika Bambaataa, turned The Organization into Zulu Nation and brought together one of the first B-Boy crews, the Zulu Kings.Peace! Kounter KultureHip Hop History: Part 7 - 13HIP HOP HISTORY: PART 7By Kounter KultureThe Zulu Kings may have been amongst the first B-Boy crews, but they were certainly not the first B-Boys. In fact, Breakin, as we know it today, is an amalgamation of many styles from many areas. Perhaps the greatest influence to all original B-Boys could easily be recognized as James Brown, and to a lesser extent, but still significant, Muhammad Ali.In the 60s there were many things happening that brought about the evolution of the first B-Boys. James Brown was employing some of the best drummers in America to come up with the funkiest Breakbeats which he would dance to in between his verses. Like New York's original B-Boys, James would always seek to come up with new moves and to reinvent old ones. Millions of young kids from the East Coast to the West Coast would be inspired by his innovations.Muhammad Ali also brought something to the world of Hiphop Kulture the Art of Boxing. Boxing was always looked upon as a crude sport with no artistic beauty, but Ali made it "pretty" as he would "float like butterfly and sting like a bee." If you look carefully at the Uprock, which was known to gangs as the Outlaw Dance, even to this day if you compared it with how Muhammad Ali would "dance" around the ring, you will see what I mean. This was very appealing to gang members.In the gangland, this aggressive dancing was used to battle for territory. Two rival gangs would meet at the borderline of their turfs and the Warlords would face off, doing their dance routine, which was actually a display of what one gang member was going to do to another stab, jab, kick, punch, bob and weave, flip a butterfly knife, etc. Sometimes the gang with the most impressively executed and most painful looking moves would win the battle without having to rumble. The losing gang would simply acknowledge, out of respect, that they weren't ready to take them on and would give up that part of their territory... until next time!In Harlem's Jackie Robinson Projects, there was a gang known as the Spanish Kings. The younger members of the Spanish Kings were known as the Baby Kings. Because the Baby Kings couldn't get into the clubs or house parties, due to their age, they would hang out in the street practicing their "Outlaw Dance." What people saw was a combination of Ali's boxing steps combined with James Brown's footwork an artistic display of aggression!Legendary B-Boy Popmaster Fabel lived in those Projects and picked up the dance from the Baby Kings. While most of the early B-Boys were Hispanic and Black, it was the Blacks who dominated the Park Jams. But it was also the Blacks who would begin to abandon the dance by the mid 70s. The Hispanics however, kept it going and began taking it to the next level. That's when Afrika Bambaataa formed the Zulu Kings. Others crews were the Bronx Boys (also known as the Disco Kings), Salsoul, Starchild La Rock, Rockwell Association and the Crazy Commanders.That's when B-Boys hit the floor! This new generation of Uprockers, who grew up watching Kung Fu movies began incorporating sweeps, kicks, spins and fancy floorwork that had them now spending just as much time on their hands as on their feet. Each week, the battle was on to invent the never before seen moves that would leave the crowd wishing someone would do it again because they couldn't believe it happened the first time. Legends like Beaver and Spy would light up the dance floor like Tops spinning out of control, yet keeping to the beat.But the Legend of all Legends was a young kid who believed in the art form so much that he almost single-handedly resurrected it when it was literally breathing its last breath. His name was Richie "Crazy Legs" Colon.Peace! Kounter Kulture http://www.soundclick.com/kounterkultureHIP HOP HISTORY: PART 8By Kounter KultureRichie Colon was only 10 years olds when his cousin Lenny Len and a neighbourhood friend from the Zulu Nation named Afrika Islam introduced him to the world of B-Boyin. Richie was learning how to box at the time, as well as practicing martial arts. But here were his two mates in his living room performing this mesmerising new dance, but without music. Immediately, he wanted to know everything there was to know about it. But he would have to wait a year before he could really see what it was all about. The following summer, Lenny took him to a schoolyard jam in the Crotona Park area and thus began his mission to be the best B-Boy in the city.What he saw that day would forever transform his life. Writers stood near the wall comparing Pieces, as the looked through each other's Blackbooks, which were filled with the Pieces that they had mastered and the potential new Pieces that would soon appear somewhere in the city. Kids were everywhere having fun. The music was energetic and for the first time, he saw the B-Boys dancing to the Breaks selected by the host Deejay, as the Emcee moved the crowd with his words. That day, Crazy Legs was born!For the next two years, Crazy Legs would learn everything that he could from Lenny Len not knowing that this was, in reality, training for his mission. He would witness some of the masters coming out of the Zulu Kings, like Beaver and Robbie Rob and the infamous "man of a million moves," Spy from the Crazy Commanders.At age 13, his family moved away from the Bronx to the North side of Manhattan near the Ghost Yard. There he and Lenny battled the original Rock Steady Crew, with Jimmy Dee and Jimmy Lee, and lost. But that's when he became a member of that Crew. In those days, if you lost but put up a good battle, you would be invited to join forces with the triumphant Crew.But there were hardly any crews left in Manhattan, or in the Bronx. B-Boyin was dying out as Emcees and Rappers were stealing the attention away from them by using the Breaks for there Raps. Crazy Legs refused to accept that B-Boyin was a thing of the past, so his mission began. He went everywhere he could to find any B-Boy still standing and would battle them. But he would battle with more than just a desire to win; he battled to keep the art form alive. Each person he beat, he would invite to be a part of his Crew. No matter where it was, if he heard that there were still B-Boys in that area, he would go with his crew to battle even if it was 50 blocks away or in another Borough!He battled the Rock City Rockers, who came out of the Zulu Kings, the Young City Boys, Buck 4 and Kuriaki. His crew began to swell! Seeing how passionate and determined he was to keep the dance alive, Jimmy Dee humbly gave the name Rock Steady Crew to Crazy Legs and made him its leader.As the new leader of Rock Steady, he aimed for the top and before long the Crew grew to about 500 members. They were unstoppable and unbeatable! So they began to form "expansion teams" to keep competition alive. Two teams that came out of that would soon become the Rock Steady Crew's fiercest rivals the New York City Breakers and the Dynamic Rockers. From there, B-Boys came back into the jams to reclaim the spotlight for while.Breakin was kept alive by the energy of this young teenager who's life was transformed by the peace, unity and fun that he witnessed that day at the Park Jam.Peace! Kounter KultureHIP HOP HISTORY: PART 9By Kounter KultureCrazy Legs wasn't the only one to be influenced positively by those Park Jams in the Bronx. In fact, it could very well be said that it was as a result of those block parties that Benjamin Melendez's dream of uniting gang members became a reality and that Afrika Bambaataa would see his dream of creating the possibility of not needing gangs.Kool Herc would also come to believe in the unifying and uplifting power of jamming in the park. But it would take some time before the Park Jams could be resurrected. Although Melendez succeeded in showing what could be possible by celebrating life, others still saw power in death and negativity. After his family began to receive death threats from those gang members who just couldn't let go of that mentality, Benjamin, along with his wife and children, disappeared, never to be seen again. The Ghetto Brothers were now dead, and with them died the Park Jam but not forever!When he moved to New York, Kool Herc's father, Keith Campbell, found work as a soundman for a local Rhythm and Blues band. He invested his money in a quality Shure P.A. system. The band wanted someone to play records during the intermission, so Kool Herc was asked would he Deejay. But Herc wanted to do his own parties with the system. So his father tells him he can't use the system if he does not Deejay for the band. This frustrated the young Kool Herc, but luck would soon come his way.See, there was a problem with Keith's Sound System he could not get it to peak. He and his son would be hearing others who had the same Shure P.A. system but for some reason their's was much louder. Of course, these others would not share their secret and when you're Sound System is not pumping strong, you can't compete for clientele.One day, Kool Herc was playing around with the system. Of course, his father wasn't home. At some stage he tried a little experiment. He placed a jack on the speaker cable and jacked it into one of the channels. That way, he could control it from the preamp, which gave him extra power and reserve power. The system was now roaring! It was now louder than the other systems. As he jammed away, Kool Herc's father came home and snuck up behind him. Herc turned around and had guilt written all over his face. His father asked where all the noise was coming from. He answered that it was their Sound System. Naturally, his father asked how this was possible. Herc joyfully showed his father what he had done. His father, realizing what this meant for business, proudly smiled at his son and told him that he could use the system for his parties. So they set up a "Father and Son" business and Kool Herc began Deejayin.Fires were still raging in the Bronx and when Herc's younger brother was playing with matches, the fires reached their home. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the family was temporarily relocated to the Concourse Plaza Hotel in the West Bronx. There, Herc would hang out in the disco downstairs called the Plaza Tunnel. Even after the family finally moved into another apartment on 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, he continued to frequent the Plaza Tunnel with his mate from school, Shaft, who along with John Brown, was the Deejay there. Herc liked it there because they played the raw music that wasn't being played elsewhere, and the crowd loved it.This was a time when radio was really softening up on their play lists even Black programmers. So the raw sounds of James Brown and Rare Earth went underground and found a loyal audience in the Bronx. Kool Herc was absorbing all of this Street Knowledge and would soon be ready to rock the crowd himself. That's when his sister Cindy asked him for a favour.Cindy needed to make some money for the upcoming school year so that she could buy some nice clothes. She had an idea. If she rented out the hall where they lived, bought some booze at bulk prices and charged 25 cents for the girls and 50 cents for the boys, she could make her money back and have plenty of profit. Kool Herc agreed to help and on the last week of August 1973, he set up his system and the party was on. It was a huge success and so they decided to continue to do it on a monthly basis.Word spread and the parties got bigger. At the time, discos were shutting down and house parties were declining in the South Bronx, in part because they were being overrun by rowdy Black Spades. This lead to people going over to Herc's parties in the West Bronx, which kept the hall filled for each jam. Then, in the summer of 1974, Kool Herc decided to throw a free outdoor Block Party. He had noticed some construction workers plugging their equipment into the street lights. So like the Ghetto Brothers, he set up his system outside. Massive turnout! So massive that he could no longer hold subsequent parties in the hall, because it could not accommodate the crowd. With this rediscovered source of power, Kool Herc had resurrected the spirit of the Park Jam!Peace! Kounter KultureHIP HOP HISTORY: PART 10By Kounter KultureFinally Kool Herc actualizes his childhood dream of one day being like King George. His own Sound System and his very own audience.To understand the origins of the Jamaican Sound System and everything that comes with it, you have to dig deep into the history of Jamaica's African descendents. That can go back pretty far, but for the understanding of its influence on Hiphop Kulture, we should begin with Count Ossie and the Rastafarians in the 1960s.Count Ossie was a musician that had been part of a long line of Africans who descended from the Maroon Culture in Jamaica, which did its best to preserve African drumming. The kind of drumming that Ossie taught to his Rasta students was known as Burru, which consisted of three drums. The first and most basic was the Bass Drum, then there was the Alto Fundeh and finally the Repeater.The Repeater was reserved for the best drummer. The Repeater was also important in the influencing of Hiphop Kulture's Emcee. In Jamaica the Emcee is actually called a DJ, and the Deejay is known as the Selector. Later, when Reggae became more popular, Jamaican DJs would verbally imitate the quick rhythms of the Repeater drum when they spat their Patwa Rhymes over a Reggae instrumental.Count Ossie mentored many of the most important Ska, Rock Steady and Reggae musicians from his home in Wareika Hills, where DJ Kool Herc spent his last years as a child before moving to New York. There is little doubt that Ossie was very instrumental in influencing Jamaican musicians to blend New Orleans' Rhythm and Blues with elements of Folk Mento, Jonkanoo, Kumina and the Revival Zion styles which led to the creation of the new sounds of the 60s and 70s.Around 1966, the Rastas began to make their real presence felt to the main culture when Haile Selassie, their Divine Leader, came to Jamaica to visit his followers. More than 100,000 Rastas stormed the runway when the plane safely landed! The Rastas were now a political threat and targeted by politicians from one side and supported by others who saw the power of their numbers and their unity. Entire Rasta camps were bulldozed and burnt down. But that didn't stop the Sound Systems from blasting messages that spoke to the poor people's conditions through music, rhyme and rhythm.Sound Systems evolved after the end of World War II when most Jamaican musicians were emigrating to Britain and the United States. With no live bands, Jamaica's Selectors moved to centre stage. They began building massive sets of speakers (sometimes up to 30-40) and powered their amps using portable generators that were necessary in many areas where there was no access to the electrical grid. The Selectors were often record shop owners who were promoting their businesses, while offering some relief to the people in the poor areas.Sound Systems quickly spread and began taking on intimidating names which fuelled competition. Duke Ried's Trojan, Coxsone Dodd's Downbeat the Ruler, Prince Bruster's Voice of the People, King Edward the Giant and Tom the Great Sebastian fought mightily for the attention of audiences. But having a loud system was not enough to win a crowd, you had to give them something good, powerful or new to listen to. Selectors began travelling to the United States to find new releases that had not yet been heard in Jamaica.Then the music industry in Jamaica began to expand and local artists were beginning to record their own songs on dub-plates, also known as acetates. This is where Dub Music came from, which also influenced Hiphop Kulture.In 1967, Ruddy Redwood, an affiliate of Duke Reid's Trojan Sound System took it all to the next level. While preparing a new record, Ruddy forgot to pan up the vocals, which led to it being an instrumental. He decided to use that copy anyway and began mixing between the original song and the instrumental. The crowd went wild! This gave rise to the B-Side Instrumentals, as well as giving rise to Jamaica's DJs, who would speak over the instrumentals and perform their Patwa Rhymes.Just as with the Rasta movement, the Sound Systems were now a threat to the political powers. And once again, the powers-that-be tried to suppress it. But the Sound Systems were the voice of the people and so they prevailed. Soon radio stations and even politicians would make decisions based on what was coming from the Sound Systems.From Jamaica to the Bronx, Sound Systems spoke the people's language and moved the crowd towards change.Peace! Kounter KultureHIP HOP HISTORY: PART 11By Kounter KultureWith word spreading so quickly about DJ Kool Herc's Block Parties, another solution had to be found to accommodate the crowd. So Herc decided to move the parties just down the road to Cedar Park. There he found a tool shed and got some young kid to climb through the broken window to find a power source. The streetlight just wasn't strong enough to power his present system; so much so that when the jams started at night, the streetlight would go dim because of the power needed for the amps! To make matters worse, Herc had just invested in a new Macintosh Amp that had 300 watts per channel! Fortunately, the young kid found the power supply and it was more than enough.Like his predecessors in Jamaica, Kool Herc was now ready to gather a full group and name his own Sound System. He asked his Jamaican friend Coke La Rock to be the DJ (which as you now know is the Jamaican term for Emcee ). Coke La Rock had brilliant skills because he paid attention to how people in the crowd spoke and what there names were, and so he would use that Street Language and give shout-outs when he was on the mic.But Herc wanted more. He wanted to take things further. He loved the raw energy of what was happening. As he thought these thoughts, he began to pay attention to the people dancing. He noticed that people were waiting for a certain part of the record the drum solo, known as the Break. When the Breaks came, dancers would break out with their best moves. Herc had an idea. What if he could find a way to sustain the Break?The solution was to find the groove in the record that marked the beginning of the Break and simply drop the needle back on that groove so that a 5 second Break could now become a 5 minute Breakbeat. He practiced the technique until he mastered it and tested it out in the park. The dancers went wild! He called the technique the "Merry-Go-Round" and the dancers were his "B-Boys" and "B-Girls" which is short for "Break Boys" and "Break Girls." Word spread fast and soon all people wanted to hear were the Breakbeats.Herc went on the hunt for more Breakbeats and would search through the record shops for whatever looked funky. He found "Apache" and "Bongo Rock" by The Incredible Bongo Band, a live version of James Brown's "Give It Up Turn It Loose" and other classics like Dennis Coffey's "Scorpio." His father taught him how to soak off the labels of the records so that people could not steal his secret weapons.With Deejays, Emcees and Breakers, he could now reveal the his system's name the Herculoids Sound System: with Coke La Rock, DJ Timmy Tim with Little Tiny Feet, DJ Clark Kent the Rock Machine, the Imperial JC, Blackjack, LeBrew, Pebblee Poo, Sweet and Sour, Prince and Whiz Kid. The West Bronx was now Herc's domain.But the South Bronx was still Bambaataa's land and he too was assembling his Zulu Nation Sound System. He had the five original Zulu Kings: Zambu Lanier, Kusa Stokes, Ahmad Henderson, Shaka Reed and Aziz Jackson. Then came the Shaka Kings and Queens, with just as many B-Girls who could rip up the dance floor as the guys. The Emcees were Queen Lisa Lee and Sha-Rock.Although his Universal Zulu Nation was growing rapidly, Bambaataa still had to face the question of the gang mentality and how to press his vision further. To the east of Bronx River were the White gangs and to the west were the Savage Nomads and the Savage Skulls. Even some members of the former "Organization" were resistant to the idea of a Zulu Nation and went off to form there own crews like the Gestapos and the Casanova Crew.In a bold move, Bambaataa sent out his Zulus to drive through the Savage Skulls turf yelling, "Free jam. Come one, come all. Leave your colours at home. Come in peace and unity."The timing was perfect. The leadership of many of the remaining gangs was falling apart and many of the younger generation, the Baby Skulls, were looking for something better. The next day, many kids left their colours at home and went to meet Bambaataa at the Community Centre to enjoy his mission of "Peace, Love, Unity and Having Fun." Many that day left the jam as Zulus.With the gangs dying off and the rise of dance crews, graffiti crews and Sound Systems, a new phenomenon was taking place a new era of Street Fashion. Gangs had their own colours but they also had an outlaw, rebellious mentality that would justify them dressing up all dirty and bummy. Now it was about style, the "So Fresh and So Clean Clean" style. The idea of a unique look for your crew carried over from the gangs, but now the style was to impress. Like the B-Boys who would look for the move that no one had yet performed, so too would Hiphoppas look for the new, never before seen style of dressing. From customised T-shirts to AJ Lester and Lee suits. Even the poorest of the poor would make special effort to clean their sneakers, iron their clothes and groom their hair. Looking good was a reflection of feeling good.To deal with the lagging gang mentality in those members who crossed over into the Universal Zulu Nation, Afrika Bambaataa introduced his own brand of Street Knowledge known as the Infinity Lessons. Members were to study and apply these lessons into their lives for the purpose of empowering themselves. Bambaataa took what he deemed to be the most positive remnants of Elijah Muhammad's teaching, the philosophy of the Five Percenters and the literature from the Ansaaru Allah movement and incorporated them into the Infinity Lessons in such a way that all humans could gain something beneficial from it.This of course did not mean that members would become cowards. In fact, quite the opposite. Self-defence was strongly emphasised. Let us not forget that this is still the Bronx. Bambaataa was fully aware of his environment but he was equally aware of the strength of his Nation. So much so that when he heard that there was a problem with Angel Dust in the area, he began to distribute flyers saying "Stop smoking that dust y'all!" And he would have his Emcees rhyming little cliché?about getting off the Dust. The drug dealers up in Harlem didn't like this, so they sent a gang known as the Hitlers to go deal with Bambaataa. Unfortunately, they didn't do their research to find out exactly who Bambaataa was and so that night the Hilters showed up at a jam and their history ended there!With the Bronx being dominated by two Sound Systems, it was time for the competition to step up and have some new blood break up this two-man monopoly. That's when a young kid named Joseph Saddler, who called himself Flash, stepped onto the scene.Peace! Kounter KultureHIP HOP HISTORY: PART 12By Kounter KultureJoseph Saddler, known to us today as Grandmaster Flash, was born in Barbados on the 1st January 1958 but raised in the South Bronx in the Fort Apache area, which was at the heart of where the Savage Skulls, Black Spades and the Ghetto Brothers roamed. Joseph was never really interested in gangs and spent most of his time trying to figure out how electronic things worked. He would find broken radios on the streets or in abandoned cars and take them home to play with, opening them up and exploring the parts. Because of this fascination with electronics, his parents sent him to the Samuel Gompers Vocational Technical High School.Like most kids in the Bronx, he kept hearing about these parties hosted by DJ Kool Herc and another local Deejay named Pete "DJ" Jones. He would attend theses jams but Joseph wasn't interested in getting high or drunk, nor was he there to pick up girls, or even to be seen for that matter - he was there to watch the Deejay. Just as with his eletronics, he simply wanted to know how Deejayin worked and how he could fix what wasn't right.The first thing that his technical mind observed was that the Deejays were sloppy in their attempting to continue the Breakbeat. What Kool Herc had invented was still in its infancy stage. And although it would sound very sloppy to us today, in those days the B-Boys didn't care, so long as the Break could be played again and again so that they could show off there moves. So Herc would literally pick up the needle and bring it back to the beginning of the Break, or as close as possible; or he would prepare the record by placing the needle in the proper groove and when it was time to begin the Breakbeat, pushing the record into play.At the same time Joseph was also going to study Pete "DJ" Jones's style, which was to use two copies of the same record to extend the length of the song if the crowd was really getting into it. Deejay Pete didn't emphasize the Breaks, he just simply extended the song, but he did so gradually, as opposed to bouncing the needle around. Saddler wanted to somehow bring these two styles together so that the Breakbeat could be extended smoothly.Joseph began to apprentice with Pete "DJ" Jones and learned his style, which was basic enough. You simply play Record 1 while cueing up Record 2; when Record 1 reaches a certain stage, for example the end of a Break, you release Record 2; while Record 2 is spinning you move the needle on Record 1 back to where you want it to take off from. This way you can extend the song for as long as you want.Saddler practised the technique on the weekends in an abandoned apartment in his building. That's when he discovered his Quick Mix Theory. While watching the record spin, he realized that the spinning motion could be represented like a clock. If a Breakbeat began and the record spun around 10 times, then you should be able to accurately spin it backwards 10 times to the beginning of the Break without having to pick of the needle. This technique would be especially useful if the Break was very short and you simply did not have the time to pick up the needle and hope you dropped it in the right place. Joseph spent months mastering this new style.He was finally ready to show it off in the summer of 1975. But he certainly did not expect the crowd to respond in the way that it did. As he began his smooth mix, the crowd froze! They couldn't believe what they were hearing and more importantly, they couldn't understand how he was doing it. The whole time they just stood there watching him, mesmerised! Needless to say, this did not help his reputation as a Deejay. No matter how fancy your technique is, if you can't rock a party and get people dancing, you lose the crowd to those who can.So Joseph understood that he now had to incorporate other elements into his party, but he still wanted to show off and preserve his new style. That's when he decided that the Breakbeat could be used for more than just dancing; it could also be used for Rapping. So he got himself an Emcee!Peace! Kounter KultureHIP HOP HISTORY: PART 13By Kounter KultureAn Element of Hiphop Kulture that is hardly spoken about is Hiphop Activism. When people do talk about it, they generally refer to the late 80s when Public Enemy, KRSONE, X-Clan and others were more involved in social issues. But Hiphop Activism really begins with the birth of Hiphop Kulture.The early block parties and park jams were more than just entertaining events, they were in essence, demonstrations. Remember, those jams were illegal. Poor Blacks and Latinos could not afford to go to the discotheques, so the Park Jams were "anti-disco" demonstrations. So much so, that when DJ Kool Herc was not allowed to come Deejay at certain clubs, he would hold his block parties near by and completely empty out the club. Eventually, the clubs began to hire him and other Hiphop Deejays.Breakers and Graffiti Artists performed and painted on the streets in protest of the fact that art and dance schools were practically non-existent in the inner-city. These art forms also challenged the popular notions that dance has to be rigid and routine, or that art must be defined using traditional methods.The idea that Hiphop Kulture was always meant to be simply a form of entertainment simply does not fit the facts of history. Bambaataa saw it as a way out of the violent gang life, thus it was partly a social movement. Kool Herc, and his sister Cindy, saw it as a way to supplement their salaries or lack of it, thus is was partly an economic movement. KRSONE saw it as a tool to teach, thus it was partly an educational movement. Chuck D and X-Clan saw it as a way to mobilise they masses towards change, thus it was partly a polical movement.People tend to remember "The Message" as the first attempt to use Emceein to speak on a conscious level, but that was not released until after "Rapper's Delight" had its success. In fact, Melle Mel was not the original writer of the song and Grandmaster Flash did not want to release "The Message" because he did not like its commentary. Flash believed that people would not like it because they were coming to the parties to forget about their troubles for a while, not to hear the ghetto life reflected in a song. And long before Melle Mel ever picked up a mic, Afrika Bambaataa was instructing his Emcees to deliver positive messages to the crowd."The Message" may have been the first Hiphop song to popularise the idea of Conscious Rap, but it was not the first Conscious Rap song. In 1979, the same year the Sugar Hill Gang hit the scene, an Emcee named Daryl Aamaa Nubyhan, with his group Brother D and the Community People, released "How We Gonna Make a Black Nation Rise" on the Black-owned Clappers Records. Brother D was a member of the cultural organization Nation Black Science. He, along with Lister Lowe, owner of Clappers Records, proclaimed, "Clappers Records were never meant to be entertainment, it's a weapon without compromise."Peace! Kounter KultureNOTE from author: I would like to thank everyone who took the time to read these articles that I have contributed to this site for Hiphop History Month 2005. This is as far as I am able and willing to take it for this year. I hope that you have found these writings to be informative, as I have done my best to find information that is not generally found in the mainstream media.If anyone would like to continue adding facts or stories about Hiphop Kulture, please feel free to do so. I apologise for not being able to provide more information on the History of Hiphop Kulture here in Ireland. Perhaps some day soon I will be more informed so as to be able to write about the history of Irish Hiphop.For those of you who would like to continue studying Hiphop Kulture, here are some of the references I used to research these writings:"Can't Stop, Won't Stop" by Jeff Chang"The Gospel of Hiphop" by KRSONE"The Hip Hop Generation" by Bakari Kitwana"Fight the Power" by Chuck D"Ruminations" by KRSONE"Cut 'n' Mix" by Dick Hebdige"The Autobiography of James Brown" by James Brown
Anybody who died for their cause. Real Heroes. Anybody who does not want rewards back for their good deeds.