Joseph C. Ewoodzie Jr.
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469632759
- eISBN:
- 9781469632773
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469632759.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
If Part One of this book described the beginnings of a new entity, this second part describes how it coalesced. If the former showed how sites of difference developed and how proto-boundaries formed, ...
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If Part One of this book described the beginnings of a new entity, this second part describes how it coalesced. If the former showed how sites of difference developed and how proto-boundaries formed, the latter discusses how a certain set of relations and proto-boundaries became longer lasting. Chapter 3 argues that boundaries become more durable when an internal logic develops within them. It shows that some conventions were intentionally introduced from within the scene; some came from inside the scene but were the result of accidents; some came from outside but were intentionally incorporated; and some were imposed on the scene from changes in the surrounding context. The empirical details of these arguments about the making of hip hop include an exploration of how scratching was invented; how security crews became important; how MCing emerged as a vital part of South Bronx parties; how hustlers became part of the scene; and how DJs and MCs competed with one another for recognition in the South Bronx. Further, I show how, with the entrée of new actors, certain attributes of the emerging entity became standard while others died off.Less
If Part One of this book described the beginnings of a new entity, this second part describes how it coalesced. If the former showed how sites of difference developed and how proto-boundaries formed, the latter discusses how a certain set of relations and proto-boundaries became longer lasting. Chapter 3 argues that boundaries become more durable when an internal logic develops within them. It shows that some conventions were intentionally introduced from within the scene; some came from inside the scene but were the result of accidents; some came from outside but were intentionally incorporated; and some were imposed on the scene from changes in the surrounding context. The empirical details of these arguments about the making of hip hop include an exploration of how scratching was invented; how security crews became important; how MCing emerged as a vital part of South Bronx parties; how hustlers became part of the scene; and how DJs and MCs competed with one another for recognition in the South Bronx. Further, I show how, with the entrée of new actors, certain attributes of the emerging entity became standard while others died off.
Joseph C., Jr. Ewoodzie
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469632759
- eISBN:
- 9781469632773
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469632759.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
The origin story of hip-hop—one that involves Kool Herc DJing a house party on Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx—has become received wisdom. But Joseph C. Ewoodzie Jr. argues that the full story remains ...
More
The origin story of hip-hop—one that involves Kool Herc DJing a house party on Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx—has become received wisdom. But Joseph C. Ewoodzie Jr. argues that the full story remains to be told. In vibrant prose, he combines never-before-used archival material with searching questions about the symbolic boundaries that have divided our understanding of the music. In Break Beats in the Bronx, Ewoodzie portrays the creative process that brought about what we now know as hip-hop and shows that the art form was a result of serendipitous events, accidents, calculated successes, and failures that, almost magically, came together. In doing so, he questions the unexamined assumptions about hip-hop's beginnings, including why there are just four traditional elements—DJing, MCing, breaking, and graffiti writing—and not others, why the South Bronx and not any other borough or city is considered the cradle of the form, and which artists besides Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash founded the genre. Ewoodzie answers these and many other questions about hip-hop's beginnings. Unearthing new evidence, he shows what occurred during the crucial but surprisingly underexamined years between 1975 and 1979 and argues that it was during this period that the internal logic and conventions of the scene were formed.Less
The origin story of hip-hop—one that involves Kool Herc DJing a house party on Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx—has become received wisdom. But Joseph C. Ewoodzie Jr. argues that the full story remains to be told. In vibrant prose, he combines never-before-used archival material with searching questions about the symbolic boundaries that have divided our understanding of the music. In Break Beats in the Bronx, Ewoodzie portrays the creative process that brought about what we now know as hip-hop and shows that the art form was a result of serendipitous events, accidents, calculated successes, and failures that, almost magically, came together. In doing so, he questions the unexamined assumptions about hip-hop's beginnings, including why there are just four traditional elements—DJing, MCing, breaking, and graffiti writing—and not others, why the South Bronx and not any other borough or city is considered the cradle of the form, and which artists besides Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash founded the genre. Ewoodzie answers these and many other questions about hip-hop's beginnings. Unearthing new evidence, he shows what occurred during the crucial but surprisingly underexamined years between 1975 and 1979 and argues that it was during this period that the internal logic and conventions of the scene were formed.
