Hip Hop week on NPR's Fresh Air

billbradley · August 2005

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13

gloom · August 2005

of course this happens the week AFTER i leave my work where we listen to NPR for 3/4s of the day...

CousinLarry · August 2005

When I weas unemployed and my only job was to pick my girlfriend up from work and clean the apartment I would listen to NPR every afternoon. I miss unemployment sometimes.

mannybolone · August 2005

Our local NPR affiliated was talking about this and called Rza "R Z A" (i.e. pronounced his name by letters vs. rih-zah).

33thirdcom · August 2005

Althuogh I may have to take issue with their first story about Kool herc and the breakbeat... haven't heard it yet, but if they think he "invented" it in anyway they need to re-do their research...

billbradley · August 2005

Althuogh I may have to take issue with their first story about Kool herc and the breakbeat... haven't heard it yet, but if they think he "invented" it in anyway they need to re-do their research...

So who "invented" DJ'ing with breakbeats if it wasn't Kool Herc?

Guzzo · August 2005

Althuogh I may have to take issue with their first story about Kool herc and the breakbeat... haven't heard it yet, but if they think he "invented" it in anyway they need to re-do their research...

So who "invented" DJ'ing with breakbeats if it wasn't Kool Herc?

yeah isn't this Kool Hercs claim to fame? Bringing his set up to parties/ the park and playing breakbeats back-to-back?

33thirdcom · August 2005

Pete "DJ" Jones was doing his thing since the late 60s to name one... Also DJ Flowers... offhand... Not saying Herc didn't push hip-hop along, but he didn't invent the break...

The Break was called the Jump Uppart of the song and Pete "DJ" Jones used to count the grooves in his records and just play the Jump Up over and over... thus creating a break.

33thirdcom · August 2005

here is a link to an interview he did with jayquan...

Pete DJ Jones Interview

Pete has some crazy stories and is one of the nicest people you'll meet. He used to play professional Ball in the 50s as well, dude has a lot of history.

billbradley · August 2005

DELETED

DOH! we were posting the same thing at the same time.

mordecai · August 2005

Our local NPR affiliated was talking about this and called Rza "R Z A" (i.e. pronounced his name by letters vs. rih-zah).

a repeat or is Terry Gross returning to the 36 chambers?

PEK · August 2005

Pete "DJ" Jones was doing his thing since the late 60s to name one... Also DJ Flowers... offhand... Not saying Herc didn't push hip-hop along, but he didn't invent the break...

The Break was called the Jump Uppart of the song and Pete "DJ" Jones used to count the grooves in his records and just play the Jump Up over and over... thus creating a break.

Based on what I've gleaned over the years, Pete 'DJ' Jones and others such as Grandmaster Flowers played a more uptown (read: smooth/club) sound whereas Herc in their wake focused more on the Latin-tinged percussive breaks that appealed to his crowd: Escovedo, Incredible Bongo Band, Caster, etc. - or is this a misread?

Guzzo · August 2005

yeah now I'm curious, its not like Kool Herc had PR people working for him to get his name all large, if these other guys were doing this as well how come they are seldom mentioned?

I'm guessing there had to be a difference in style/ what they were spinning

PEK · August 2005

I'm guessin' that Herc's precursors pretty much built their reps in established clubs (based on literature I've gone over) versus Herc himself who rocked parks and rented community rec centers - I don't think he enjoyed a residency like those other jocks and got his name over partly owin' to the MacIntosh amp that he used to try and duplicate the power of the JA soundsystems he was familiar w/ before emigratin' from Kingston to NYC to join his mom, who worked as a nurse.

rootlesscosmo · August 2005

Our local NPR affiliated was talking about this and called Rza "R Z A" (i.e. pronounced his name by letters vs. rih-zah).

a repeat or is Terry Gross returning to the 36 chambers?

That first Terri Gross-RZA interview was great. Lots of awkward moments when RZA starts talking about sex and stuff...She even drops a little Prince Rakeem joint in the interview. Is that the one they are playing? They need to get Ghost in the studio with Terri this time. (The NPR studio that is

)

billbradley · August 2005

yeah now I'm curious, its not like Kool Herc had PR people working for him to get his name all large, if these other guys were doing this as well how come they are seldom mentioned?

from that interview posted above:

JQ : Do you feel that your name has been unfairly left out of Hip Hop history ? (Flash does mention that you were the first person he saw spin 2 copies of a record.....and the first with a cue on your mixer)

PJ : Well I was a club Dj downtown....you had to be an adult to get into the places I played . Therefore some guys talk about Flash , Herc and Bambaataa because they were park Djs.....anyone could go to the park, there was no age limit ,but they were too young to see me .

33thirdcom · August 2005

yeah now I'm curious, its not like Kool Herc had PR people working for him to get his name all large, if these other guys were doing this as well how come they are seldom mentioned?

from that interview posted above:

JQ : Do you feel that your name has been unfairly left out of Hip Hop history ? (Flash does mention that you were the first person he saw spin 2 copies of a record.....and the first with a cue on your mixer)

PJ : Well I was a club Dj downtown....you had to be an adult to get into the places I played . Therefore some guys talk about Flash , Herc and Bambaataa because they were park Djs.....anyone could go to the park, there was no age limit ,but they were too young to see me .

Yeh it broke down to an age difference really... But nah Pete rocked with fatback and also would rock Fatback, JBs, etc. Probably not as much Latin influence but he was rockin alot of the famous breaks we all know of. And also Pete never said he felt that herc's redit was not due, he just wanted it clear that people should know there were plenty fo DJs that paved the way ahead of Herc... Including himself.. Shit lovebug Starski carried Pete's crates, he said herc and red Alert used to try and sneak around seeing what Jump Ups he was playing... Also you should ask him about when he battled Grandmaster Flash when Flash was upa nd coming. pete was the biggest DJ at the time and they asked him to Battle and lose to Flash to help him get more recognition... Stories upon stories.

coselmed · August 2005

Our local NPR affiliated was talking about this and called Rza "R Z A" (i.e. pronounced his name by letters vs. rih-zah).

The R-Z-A is becoming quite the media darling, no? This event is already sold out:

Stage to Studio
When performers produce.

Sasha Frere-Jones, moderator. With Steve Albini, Ani DiFranco, Ric Ocasek, and the RZA.

Sasha Frere-Jones is the pop-music critic for The New Yorker. From 1991 to 2003, he was a member of the band Ui, whose albums include ???Answers,??? ???Lifelike,??? and ???Sidelong.??? In 1998, he released ???Standing Upright on a Curve,??? a solo guitar album. He is currently finishing an album of loud rock songs.

Steve Albini is a guitarist, recording engineer, and occasional music writer. Formerly a member of the bands Big Black and Rapeman, he currently plays with the group Shellac. He has overseen the making of the albums ???In Utero,??? by Nirvana, and ???Surfer Rosa,??? by the Pixies, among many others.

Ani DiFranco is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She produced her first sixteen solo albums and co-produced her seventeenth, ???Knuckle Down,??? which was released this year. She has also produced recordings by the artists Dan Bern, Janis Ian, and the group Bitch and Animal, and co-produced Drums & Tuba and Hammell on Trial for her Righteous Babe Records label.

Ric Ocasek was the front man for the rock band the Cars, which sold more than twenty-five million albums in the nineteen-seventies and eighties. He has produced recordings by Bad Brains, Guided by Voices, Hole, Weezer, and No Doubt, and served as vice-president of artists and repertoire at Elektra. His solo albums include ???Troublizing??? and ???Nexterday.???

The RZA, whose real name is Robert Diggs, is a founding member of the hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan. He has produced all their albums and also the solo efforts of Method Man and the late ODB. As a film composer, his credits include ???Kill Bill: Vol. 1,??? which was nominated for a BAFTA, and ???Kill Bill: Vol. 2.??? He is the author of ???The Wu-Tang Manual,??? published this year, and will star in ???Derailed,??? with Clive Owen.

4 p.M. Times Square Studio
1500 Broadway

(Note: All programming is subject to change. For the most up-to-date information, visit www.newyorker.com. Tickets available online at ticketmaster.com, at all outlets, or by phone: call 1-877-391-0545.)

http://festival.newyorker.com/

33thirdcom · August 2005

Good for RZA... Get the cash. I finally got the Wu book and I like it.

mordecai · August 2005

That first Terri Gross-RZA interview was great. Lots of awkward moments when RZA starts talking about sex and stuff...She even drops a little Prince Rakeem joint in the interview. Is that the one they are playing? They need to get Ghost in the studio with Terri this time.

YES!

like the part where he's talking about having sex at age 12 or whatever?

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Hip Hop week on NPR's Fresh Air

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