History Of Hip Hop Tour- NYC

I've never been much into tour groups or site-seeing when I visit a new city. I usually prefer to hang out with local people at local places, to a get a sense of what the city is really like. But I had to make an exception the first time I went to New York. A heading in a NYC brochure caught my eye: "History of Hip Hop Tour".

I was a little skeptical at first. I mean, how could anyone convey the history of this music and its culture through a simple bus ride in just a matter of a few hours, right?

But it ended up being one of the best things I've ever done during my travels. This tour was not just a bus ride, pointing out various sites. In fact, it didn't just appeal to our sense of sight. It engaged all the senses. And most memorable was the way in which it stirred up many emotions in me- a feeling of connection- to something in the past, but something so deeply embedded in the heart and soul of the city, something that gave the city an energy and vibe that you could still feel in the air, and in the atmosphere to this day: the culture, music and stories of hip hop.

And being given the opportunity to soak this all in made me feel like I was somehow a part of it myself.

Not only did our tour guides take us to major landmarks in Harlem and the Bronx that were key to the growth of hip hop, but we were given lots of insights into the origins of hip hop- the individuals who helped it evolve and who were passionate about it, as well as those, like many record companies, who thought it was just a fad and so were not as willing at first to sign on hip hop artists to their labels.

Along the way, we listened to artists such as James Brown and Grandmaster Flash, and were given interesting details into how these artists became so popular.

We were also taken to a barbeque chicken place where we got a chance to eat some good old southern food while listening to some of my favorite old school tunes.

I liked the way the tour touched on how society around that time influenced the attitude, style, and lyrics of hip hop music and musicians. For example, the civil rights movement had just taken place only a few decades earlier. And so some of the monuments we stopped at weren't just connected to hip hop but also to changes in attitudes towards other cultures and races. I still remember imprinting an image of the Theresa Hotel in my mind, as the tour guides pointed out that it was the first hotel where African Americans were allowed to stay in the 1940's. I tried to imagine what a huge impact this kind of shift had on the lives of the people at that time.

Grandmaster Caz, aka Grandmaster Casanova Fly (of the Coldbrush Brothers), was one of our guides. He used the four elements of Hip Hop- Grafitti Art, Emceeing, DJing and Bboying- as a framework for the information he shared with us and for the sites he took us to.

Frank E. Campbell's Funeral Home (where the service of Notorious Big, Alia and Celia Cruz took place), as well as the

Harlem World Entertainment Complex (a center spot for rap battles such as the classic one between Busy Bee and Kool Moe D) were just two of the stops we made.

And of course, we spent some time around 125th Street, the Mecca of Harlem- and the home of the Apollo Theater.

But my favorite stop was at the Grafitti Hall of Fame. The wall is truly a work of art in its richness of colour, its wild, yet detailed images, and an energy- lively, flowing, but also raw and full of stories. I felt as if there was so much in each image, as if each line and shape told much more than just how talented these artists were.

One section of the wall, in particular, includes the faces of hip hop artists such as Two Pac and Biggy Small. In honoring such artists in this way, the wall serves as a reminder that hip hop was made up of more than just music. It was a culture, a family and even a lifestyle for many of those artists and their fans.

Halfway through the trip, we were told that we were going to have a surprise guest on the bus ride back with us. I couldn't believe it when Kurtis Blow ended up sitting right next to us. I had to include the picture of him and Caz and I here, not just to prove it to you, but also because sometimes, I still can't believe it myself.

But yes, Kurtis Blow joined us on the way back. He even gave me some advice on how I could support hip hop in my classroom without having to simultaneously deal with the stereotypical swearing and gangster persona that often comes with some of the newer hip hop music.

He gave me some suggestions of hip hop artists who would be good role models for youth, and it was great to hear some of his stories about the hip hop world, straight from someone who was really there to experience it.

Maybe I didn't come back from that first trip to New York telling friends what the Empire State Building or Statue of Liberty was like (Don't worry, I eventually went back and visited those sites). But I was so excited to share what I learned on this tour with my students.

And I will never forget being able to walk along the same pavement and being surrounded by some of the same monuments, streets and walls in which hip hop grew up.

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Some cool hip hop facts brought up on the tour:

• DJ Kool Herc, from Jamaica, played the beat part of the song The Breaks.
• Grandmaster Flash decided that the breaks in music were too short so he got two of the same records and cut the break going back and forth between the two records. That was how turn tabling got started.
• DJ Theodore- got as good as Flash on the turntables and Theodore was the first to scratch records. He was only thirteen years old at the time. Supposedly, his mom came in ranting at him for being out and making so much noise, and he was holding the record down on the turntable to listen to her. He liked the sound that the "hold" made, and that's how scratching got started.
• Enjoy Records- The record label that Flash got signed to.
• 1979- First rap record to make an impact- Sugar Hill Records- Rapper's Delight.
• The first rap record ever to be made was Kim Tim the 3rd.
• First hip hop artist that was signed to a major record label was Kurtis Blow. - Polygram Records.
• The first rap record to go gold- The Breaks
• First female rap group to make a record- The Sequence - on the Sugar Hill Label.
  Funk You Up was the song (Angie Stone- member of The Sequence- used to be called Angie B).
• Angie Stone was married to Lil Rodney C (Rodney Stone) of the Funky Four Plus One More.
• The first female in a hip hop group- Sha Rock (Sharon Green) in the Funky Four Plus One More.
• The first female emcee- solo emcee- Emcee Pebblee Poo- emceed for DJ Kool Herc.
• Rucker Park- EBC-a basketball court in NYC, Harlem. It is sponsored by hip hop artists.
• Ghostwriters exist in the rapping world as well as in the regular writing world. Ghostwriters are writers who write another rapper's lyrics without others knowing about it. Grandmaster Caz was Casinova Fly and was the ghostwriter for Big Bad Hank (of the Sugar Hill Gang).
• Wild Style was the first hip hop movie filmed.
• The Rocksteady Crew in Flashdance - the first time hip hop artists were featured in a movie bboying.
• The blackout of 1977- lights went out all over the city. After the blackout, there were Djs all over the city because of looting- people had broken into electronics shops and stolen recrods. That "allowed" those who couldn't afford to be dj's before, to be dj's. Some say that the blackout was "God's gift to the poor people."
• KRS1, Red Alert, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were elected to the Bronx Walk of Fame.

*Note: I have not gotten a chance to look into all the details of these facts I've shared. So if any of them need correcting or if you have any comments, please feel free to let me know. I would love to get some feedback. You can even add some more to the list if you feel like it.

** Hip hop music had its roots way farther back than some of the dates recorded above. But most of the information above is related to the era of commercially released hip hop.