To celebrate hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, Flocabulary is releasing a five-part “50 Years of Hip-Hop” video series throughout the week of August 7-11. Each day of the week, a new section of the song will be posted, building up to a full song and an explainer video to be released on Thursday, August 10th, in the evening. We will update this blog post daily with each section, so be sure to bookmark this page and check back as the week progresses!
When is the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, and why should it be celebrated?
August 11, 2023, marks 50 years since hip-hop was born. On this date in 1973, DJ Kool Herc hosted a “Back to School Jam” at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx. Using two copies of the same record and two turntables, Herc played instrumental breaks of songs over and over. When the break finished on one turntable, he quickly switched the signal to the other to play it again. This created a loop of music that gave “break boys” and “break girls” more time to dance. It also gave Herc a rhythmic canvas for his announcements on the mic—a stylistic approach to hosting that opened the door for what we now know as rapping. Hip-hop was born.
Here at Flocabulary, we owe everything to that party in the Bronx, so to celebrate hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, we’ve decided to tell the story of hip-hop the best way we know how: through hip-hop. Over the course of the week ending on August 11th, we will be releasing a five-part history of hip-hop piece-by-piece. This will all lead up to Thursday, August 10th, when we will release the full song on Flocabulary. We’ll also release a “50 Years of Hip-Hop Unpacked” explainer video hosted by one of our Flocabulary rappers.
Join us for our Youtube Live on August 7th at 5 pm ET as Flocabulary celebrates 50 years of hip-hop! 🔥
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Hip-hop history
Condensing 50 years of history into a single song is a tall task. Our team has spent the last few months researching, working with lyricists, recording verses, and creating visuals to celebrate this important occasion. Still, we could never claim to have covered everything. What we have created is a timeline and narrative of major milestones in the development, growth, and evolution of hip-hop culture.
Our history of hip-hop starts with its origins in the 1970s as well as the formation of hip-hop’s five pillars. While hip-hop may be used interchangeably with rap today, MCing is just one part of the full picture. The five pillars comprising hip-hop are DJing, break dancing, MCing, graffiti, and knowledge—knowledge of self, surroundings, and hip-hop’s history. Through these key aspects of hip-hop, the culture spread—at first from the Bronx to the rest of New York City, then later throughout the US and eventually the world.
At Flocabulary, it’s important to us to celebrate hip-hop in its entirety. While rapping and music production are most obviously related to our content, our connection to the other pillars flows through. Our video visuals and art are directly inspired by the music they’re matching—much like the close relationship between music and graffiti. It’s our sincere hope that at least some of our songs get students dancing, and of course, it all comes back to knowledge. This is why for hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, it’s only right we celebrate what we love so much and share the story of hip-hop as best we can.
Check back here on Monday, August 7th, for the first section of Flocabulary’s celebration of 50 Years of Hip-Hop!
Source: https://blog.flocabulary.com/history-hip-hop-50-years/
