Despite knowing a fair amount about hip-hop history, I have to admit that I only found out yesterday that the first ever hip-hop party was held at this address. However, not knowing does not equal not loving--I am all for the building's preservation as a historical landmark, as well as for keeping NYC housing affordable for low-income residents.
I have to say that the first middle of the article bored me a bit (all that talk about property laws--hated it!) but I loved reading how DJ Kool Herc's sister, Cindy Campbell, promoted that very first party on August 11, 1973 to earn "some extra money for back-to-school clothes":
I didn't want to go to Fordham Road to buy clothes because you'd go to school and see everybody with the same thing on. I wanted to go to Delancey Street and get something unusual.She sounds awesome. :) I also dig this quote from Kool Herc himself (who's already 52 years old o_O):
It wasn't a black thing, it was a we thing. We played everything. Gary Glitter? We rocked that. We schooled people about music.(lol, Gary Glitter.) Everyone should stand behind saving the birthplace of hip-hop because hip-hop is not so much a "black thing" as it is an American thing. Hip-hop was born and raised strictly in America--a scrappy fighter with a voice that frightened and excited the status quo as only the newest, most fearless things can. And it did that by extracting beloved parts from the old in order to construct the new. Hip-hop is therefore an inherently self-referential art, and this quality has evolved along with it as words began to be layered over tracks that were once simple, extended breakbeats: in their rhymes, rappers frequently reference themselves (and how dope they are), each other (in battles), and pop culture (listen for the reel change bleeps in The Score). Self-reference is a hallmark of our postmodern culture's art, mentality, attitude, and sense of humor, and it figures most especially in hip-hop. It's as modern and American as jazz.
Some people say hip-hop is dead. (So do people who need to sell CDs.) Some older fans believe they've outgrown it. Some have turned away from it--disgusted--and embraced other genres. And maybe it is at least a little true that hip-hop is dying. I certainly believe that it's ailing from exploitation and lack of artistic bravery (click this link to read an article arguing why hip-hop is sucking--it has a pretty well-built argument behind it). Nevertheless, hip-hop, as embodied in the building at 1520 Sedgwick, needs support from all people--not just from the fans who used to love her or the rappers and suits who make bank off of her, but from all Americans and especially all New Yorkers. This "we thing" is rooted in the Bronx and New York should be enormously proud of its place in hip-hop culture, regardless of the state that it may be in now.
And just to take it back...
