NYC: Originators

Hip hop music originated in the South Bronx in the mid-seventies. It is closely related to Jamaican DJ music, and the direct connection is Kool Herc, who moved as a kid from Jamaica in 1967. He developed a Jamaican-style sound system to play Bronx parties. It's worth noting that when he left Jamaica, the DJ appeared at sound parties and toasted over songs, but that these toasts had not yet, or had barely begun, to appear on records in their own right. The moment of invention would be whenever Herc first moved from one turntable to the other with the same song, extending an instrumental break, something not found in Jamaican music. He threw out some phrases over the resulting rhythm, but eventually hired rappers to do the talking. Hence, hip hop. P.S. There are various accounts of the origin of the term. I suspect it came from nonsense syllables thrown out by early rappers: "hip hop, ya don't stop."

Afrika Bambaataa (Kevin Donovan)

With Flash and Herc, Bam was a fundamental DJ in early hip hop. He deserves credit for one huge idea, I think: hip hop as a culture, encompassing graffiti, break-dancing, dj-ing, mc-ing, and (possibly) double-dutch rope jumping. His Zulu Nation made hip hop a center of youth community organization. His vision was always comprehensive. He was also fundamentally biting Herc originally, but by the time he recorded in the early 80s he was a one-off. "Planet Rock" with Soul Sonic Force (a trio of mc's), or "In Search of the Perfect Beat" were I guess electronica or something, even though they did involve turntabling Kraftwerk records.

Cold Crush Brothers

It is disconcerting how little remains of the earliest hip hop artists. They were all-city party stars, though, and didn't really see becoming or see the need to become recording artists. The Cold Crush Brothers were one of the earliest MC crews, now best known as the rap group in the movie "Wild Style" and for Big Bang Hank's imitation of Caz on "Rapper's Delight." w/ Grand Wizard Theodore: battle.

Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Saddler) and the Furious Five

He started off by following Herc around, trying to figure out how he was doing what he was doing and what records he was playing. His Dad fixed radios, and eventually he made his own mixer etc. But there's no doubt that in the long run he took turntabling to new, almost ridiculous heights (e.g. "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel"). Also, he was the main transitional figure to the next generation of NYC hip hop artists, such as Run DMC and Whodini. Melle Mel, Kid Creole, Cowboy, Scorpio, and Raheem were all strong, and I'm sure the whole thing sounded insanely fresh in 1978 or whenever. His mÈtier was stolen by the Sugarhill Gang when Flash basically refused to record, but then again I guess hip hop is also implicitly a critique of ownership, or once was. Obviously, he did eventually make important records, and "The Message" is a classic if nothing else for its establishment of rap as an explicitly political/autobiographical discourse. it's nasty

Grand Wizard Theodore (Theodore Livingston)

Generally credited as the inventor of scratching. He was the brother of a DJ partner of Flash. Supposedly when his mother walked into his room as he was working on his turntable he was startled and pulled the record back. it sounded good. Later he performed with a bunch of mc's as GMT and the Fantastic Five. They overlapped with and rivaled the Cold Crush Brothers. They did not record, but Theodore appeared briefly in the movie "Wild Style" with the Cold Crush Bros.

DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell)

He moved from Jamaica to the Bronx in 1967 at the age of twelve. No one seems to contest Herc's status as the inventor of hip hop. Again, the moment is when he put the same record on two turntables and switched between them to make one seamless rhythm of indefinite length. This is hard to do well. He used a very eclectic and obscure set of records, but the classic mixes would have involved funk and disco. His mc's Coke La Rock and Clark Kent were arguably the first proper rappers, though of course you'd have to talk about Jamaican DJs and spoken word artists/poets of various sorts. Herc did not record at his creative height. He was apparently stabbed in the late seventies and disappeared from view for years. later he did make a couple of records, more as historical documents than as commercial enterprises.

Sugarhill Gang

They had the first hip hop (?) single, in 1979: "Rapper's Delight." The head of Sugarhill Records, Sylvia Thompson (also Jamaican) had probably approached Flash to record, and he had refused. She then hired a guy (Big Bang Hank), who used to be Flash's driver, to simulate his sound. They used studio musicians essentially to reproduce what Flash was doing, specifically to record versions of Chic's "Good Times" ("R's Delight") and the Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache" ("Jump on It") staples of Flash's show. That's why it's not exactly hip hop but an amazing simulation, since there is no appropriation via turntable. Hank literally stole his raps. On "Rapper's Delight" he swiped his lines word for word from Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers. Unbelievably, he even says "I'm C to the A to the Z" etc. However, the records sound good, and are valuable documents if nothing else because they are close simulations of what Flash was doing at the time. And who's to blame if Flash didn't believe hip hop would work on record? Plus the raps are pretty good, especially those by Master Gee.