Thousands of people celebrated hip-hop’s 50th anniversary late Friday night during a mega-concert in the Bronx given by pioneers of the genre like Run-DMC, Nas and Snoop Dogg at a Yankee Stadium with a huge overheated The atmosphere.
For more than eight hours, New Yorkers and tourists alike celebrated with demonstrative joy five decades of music born on August 11, 1973, whose immense influence would irrevocably shake up culture and the music industry.
“I didn’t know how monumental it was going to be when it started,” confided Kiesha Astwood, 50, a hip-hop fanatic born in 1973 on Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, the 46,000-seat baseball team’s mythical stadium.
AFP
Here, on the first floor of a public housing building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in one of New York’s five boroughs, DJ Clive Campbell, aka DJ Kool Herc, of Jamaican origin, innovates: by spinning the same disc on two turntables, he isolates the sequences of rhythms and percussions and plays them through the speakers, anticipating the “breakbeat” that is an integral part of hip-hop.
“It’s super invigorating,” Kiesha Astwood gushed to AFP as Kool Herc received praise for his key role on stage. “We are here fifty years later.”
During this marathon concert, which began after 1:00 am, the stars of the genre followed one another to line up hits like Run-DMC and his “It’s Tricky” and capture the screams of a stunned audience.
Another veteran, Nas, played him a number of tracks from his seminal album, Illmatic, including The World Is Yours and NY State of Mind.
“One vote”
When the New York icon invited Lauryn Hill onto the stage to conclude her performance, the crowd erupted in a roar to perform their song “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)” and their own single “Doo Wop (That Thing)” )” and his rendition of “Killing Me Softly”, originally sung with the Fugees.
Snoop Dogg selected songs from his fan favorites including “The Next Episode”, “Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang” and “Gin And Juice”.
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Lil Wayne, The Sugarhill Gang, Wu-Tang Clan members and Ice Cube were also part of the show, all Melle Mel or even Scorpio with Grandmaster Caz.
“I think hip-hop really gave a voice to people who didn’t have a voice in the beginning,” said Antoine Crossley, who traveled all the way from Chicago.
“Our Lineage”
This concert was the culmination of a series of events. In New York there are numerous cultural initiatives throughout the summer: graffiti or breakdance sessions, “block parties”, concerts…
To some critics and fans, giving an official birth date for a style of music that actually predates August 11, 1973 seems somewhat arbitrary.
But perhaps no other genre of music deserves to celebrate its birth. For decades, hip-hop was vilified, ignored, and censored by an industry it profoundly shaped, in a country where rappers produced big hits and had a major impact on everything from music and fashion to language and dance.
AFP
When life in New York was harsh and violent, the first “block parties,” celebrations, offered young African Americans a way out of poverty and discrimination. Hip hop then spread to all parts of the world and most countries now have their own scene.
The audience, from children to grandparents, danced, sang and made the night sparkle in the light of their cell phones.
But as the hours went by, some joked that they were aging like hip-hop itself. “All the sitters are over 30, we’ve got a bit bad knees here,” one of them admitted.
Fans who had the stamina to see it through to the end saw Nas bring DJ Kool Herc back on stage for another round of thanks. “It’s our love, our lineage,” he said. “Hip-hop was born for you and me and we’re where we need to be. In New York”.