Break Beats in the Bronx

Rediscovering Hip-Hop's Early Years

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Music, Music Styles, Pop & Rock, Rap, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Sociology
Cover of the book Break Beats in the Bronx by Joseph C. Ewoodzie, The University of North Carolina Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Joseph C. Ewoodzie ISBN: 9781469632766
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press Publication: August 8, 2017
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press Language: English
Author: Joseph C. Ewoodzie
ISBN: 9781469632766
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication: August 8, 2017
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Language: English

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.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

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.

More books from The University of North Carolina Press

Cover of the book The New Southern-Latino Table by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
Cover of the book Frank Porter Graham and the 1950 Senate Race in North Carolina by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
Cover of the book Terror in the Heart of Freedom by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
Cover of the book Citizen, Mother, Worker by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
Cover of the book Glorious Contentment by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
Cover of the book On Becoming Cuban by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
Cover of the book Journal of the Civil War Era by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
Cover of the book Americanism by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
Cover of the book Paulo Freire and the Cold War Politics of Literacy by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
Cover of the book Staff Officers in Gray by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
Cover of the book Confronting Captivity by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
Cover of the book The Politics of American Religious Identity by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
Cover of the book Jane Grey Swisshelm by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
Cover of the book Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
Cover of the book Bonds of Union by Joseph C. Ewoodzie
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy