Want to Know Where Hip-Hop Came From?

Once upon a time in the Bronx there were DJs who mashed up Jamaican and African-American sound sensibilities thereby assisting a culture of breaking, graffiti, and emceeing. Some of them met in parks and others such as DJ Pete Jones who was a little older played in clubs.

Tom Silverman, founder of Tommy Boy Records witnessed some of this early sound experimentation in rhythm at the T-Connection club where Afrika Bambaata would take these songs that many credit him with finding first and turn them into the architecture of hip-hop.

Kool Herc utilized this catalog as well during his early days at The Twilight club. The funkiest rhythm part of a James Brown record like “Give It Up Or Turn It Loose” would be mined for a solid funk byte to excite the dancers. Herculean stereo speakers inspired by the soundsystems issued enough volume to match its namesake.

A cut of percolating Black-Latin funk “It’s Just Begun” by The Jimmy Castor Bunch has thrilled the bones of many a breakdancer and became iconic in the ’80s mainstream when it made the soundtrack of “Flashdance.”

Castor sang doo-wop with Frankie Lymon in the ’50s and plunged into funk and metal by the time he recorded this darling for the hip-hop DJs, dancers and taggers. Billy Squier’s “The Big Beat” is part and whole drum tracks for hip-hoppers at large from RUN DMC to Jay-Z.

Cardboard boxy-sounding drumstick licks and jolting guitar juices up the rock classic. Someone may ask what is a song by ’60s TV music group The Monkees is doing in a hip-hop crate yet “Mary Mary” is another great breakbeat source that RUN DMC covered. Hip-Hop takes things and adapts them to its style in like manner of the other musical artists who seek to use hip-hop in their work.

Lyn Collins and The JBs “Think (About It)” underscores the machinations of tons of songs from rappers spanning all three generations of the music’s history. Faith Evans who sings soul used the song’s patterns for “Mesmerize” an obvious nod to Collins’ belted soul.

The rhythm rearranging (cutting, scratching, sampling, etc.) of the artform forecast intellectual property laws and the introduction of numerous pieces of electronic gear (ipods turntables, Final Scratch, etc.) inspired by the original needs of these DJs.

Jazzy Jay another protÃ?©gÃ?© of Bambaataa’s who co-produced “Planet Rock”, was a founder of Def Jam and played the club DJ in the movie “Beatstreet” contributed his famous edits to the compilation. Hip-hop has absorbed endless sound influences in its vast archive, this Tommy Boy collection explains where it got some of its earliest footing that will forever be relevant to hip-hop’s sonorous life.