It’s important to remember that everything is built upon what has come before.

We take it for granted that we have samplers, laptops, and all of this fancy recording equipment and software.

However, back in the days when hip-hop started, all we had was a record player, a turntable. That was it. Someone brilliantly figured out that you could put two of them together, playing the same record, to extend the break beat. This effectively turned a turntable into a sampler well before samplers ever existed. We then had drum machines and fancy recording gear come out of that.

A lot of the fancy recording techniques that are done today in pop music, electronic music, rock music, or any other genre, are directly influenced by hip-hop. Some might want to argue this fact by stating that this technology may have come about anyway. Maybe so, but I think you need to recognize the early hip-hop pioneers for what they did and the influence they have had over time.

Hip-Hop was born in New York. It originated in the Bronx in 1973 and it might have stayed there if it weren’t for some very popular groups.

An interesting piece of hip-hop history revolves around two guys from South Africa, Clive Calder and Ralph Simon. Together they formed Zomba Music Group. They moved to London, England and founded Jive Records in 1978. They also opened a New York office and took a chance with rap music. They signed a group named Whodini. Whodini became one of the first commercially successful rap acts. This success led Jive records to shift their focus almost completely towards rap music.

If you go through your record collection, or mine, you’ll notice that pretty much all of the popular rap music from the early to mid-1980s was on Jive Records. Artists like BDP, Schoolly D, DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, A Tribe Called Quest all called Jive home. Jive records was quite literally owning hip-hop back then.

1984 was a landmark year for hip-hop. Rap music had been pretty much relegated to New York up to that point. That was where it was based. That was where it had been born as a culture. However, with the help of groups like Whodini, The Fat Boys, and Run-DMC, rap started to garner attention all across the United States.

Hip-hop was able to move over to the West Coast and rooted itself there. Local scenes popped up in Philadelphia, Texas, and in Atlanta. When I think about hip-hop outside of New York, those are the first things that come to mind. However, while doing my research for this episode, I was surprised to find out that when hip-hop got big back in 1984, it almost immediately skipped across the pond and landed in Paris, France.

Chase March looks at the migration of hip-hop music and culture and plays these tracks

Dee Nasty – Paname City Rappin’
DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince – Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble
Schooly D – PSK

This was an encore presentation of a first season episode of Know Your History.

And to finish off the hour, we spin some great hip-hop tunes from Canada, Australia, and different parts of the United States of America. Press play and enjoy!

Godd Boddies – Get Down of Your Knees
Kadyelle – What They Got
Branded Moore ft. Finger Slim and Exit Only – A Symphony
Goodie Mob – Cell Therapy
Biologic – Wonderful Days
Pigeon Hole ft. D-sisive – Light Show
Animal Farm – What I Do
J. Shiltz – Keep Pushing On

The Word is Bond Rap Radio Hour – your favourite hour of the week with real hip-hop music on your radio dial, podcast, and Internet stream.

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