The Afrika Bambaataa Revolution and Grandmaster Flash – Hip Hop Origin 2

In the previous Hip Hop Origin article we saw how he managed Kool Herc to cement the very origins of hip hop musically. Today, we will look at the key contribution of Grandmaster Flash in completing the technical evolution of his sound, as well as review the key figure of Afrika Bambaataa in the gestation of the second leg of the hip hop movement. One as important as the musical one: the creation of its community. Herc, Bambaata and Flash: the Holy Trinity of Hip Hop.

Community: hip hop understood as an integrating element.

In the Netflix documentary hip-hop evolution, Afrika Bambaataa introduces himself to us as "a converted DJ" of the movement started at Kool Herc parties.  Bambaataa had had the opportunity to listen to the musical revolution that DJ Herc was implementing on party nights on the west side of the Bronx and, more specifically, in Cedar Park. "I thought, hey, I have those songs too," says Bambaataa in the first episode of Hip hop evolution, to explain that, essentially, what he did was bring that new sound coined by Herc to his neighborhood. But he didn't just bring the music. He also brought with him a new spirit of love and conciliation.

Universal Zulu Nation and community unification

“It was about organizing people. Bring in the DJs, the MCs, the taggers, the B-boys, the B-girls, and the fifth element: knowledge. We fused all that as a cultural element and we put the hip hop label on it ».

Afrika Bambaataa

Afrika Bambaataa played a key role in using music as a pacifying and unifying element in the Bronx River Projects area, heavily marked by gang violence. Noted member of the Black Spades gang, Bambaataa proposed the creation of a musical organization that would welcome members of different gangs to resolve their differences, yes, but using musical culture as a weapon.

La Universal Zulu Nation (existing since 1973) acquires the status of a musical group on November 12, 1976. "It was a way to channel any type of pressure you were experiencing," he says Grand Wizard Theodore, from the Fantastic Five.

“During my childhood, I grew up conditioned and educated to run away whenever I heard something related to “Africa” or “African”. I had been trained to turn my back on my origins. When I suddenly saw this guy called Afrika Bambaataa and the Zulu Nation, it all made sense. Bambaataa rescued that kind of awareness.

Grand Mixer DXT

Of course, the violence and murders did not go away. However, the Universal Zulu Nation was the first example of the use of hip hop as a community identity element. Something that, as we will see later, has been a pattern a thousand times replicated by practically all the first rap swords.

Grandmaster Flash and the DJ revolution

Despite the contributions of Herc and Bambaataa, in the late XNUMXs rap and hip hop were in their infancy. There was still a lot to cook. This is where it comes in Grandmaster Flash and his revolutionary technical contribution that was about to change everything. In the words of Grand Mixer DXT, Flash was the first to unite technique and technology by reformulating the function of the turntable and the mixer.

“Grandmaster Flash was the spark for a whole second generation of alumni like myself, Grand Wizzard Theodore, GrandMixer DXT, Charlie Chase, and even the Jam Master Js and Premier DJs. To us, Flash was the god of the DJ."

jazzy jay

As a child, Grandmaster Flash had an inordinate interest in both electrical devices ("anything that could be unscrewed," he says) and things that rotate. Therefore, when his father showed up at home with an object that fulfilled these two characteristics and that, on top of that, emitted musical melodies, the future MC was intrigued.

Changing the vinyl standards

It didn't take Flash long to investigate all the technological paraphernalia behind the amplifiers and jukeboxes. He grabbed some car speakers, messed around and started DJing. Literally. He was fascinated by the sound of Kool Herc, but he was frustrated by the inability, when manipulating the vinyl, to be able to hit and reproduce the fragment of the song that he had in mind (usually the break or break beat). To Grandmaster Flash it occurred to him to take a pencil, make a mark on the vinyl and count the laps he made, then go back that number of laps and play the desired fragment. He didn't know what he had just done.

We are talking about the ABC of the DJ. “We are talking about a person who came up with the idea of ​​manipulating a technology designed to play music and do something else with it,” he says. nelson george, critic, journalist and filmmaker. George provides a very interesting reflection on the innovative role of the African-American community in the American music scene, and compares the revolution of Grandmaster Flash to that of the saxophone as a central element of jazz or to the new role that Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters they gave the electric guitar in rock music.

“I am very proud that my science reached so many new levels. I see so many DJs doing incredible things… The thing is this: I don't want any recognition for the cutting, crabbing, flaring, scratching, sucka zucka… I have not invented any of those things, but I will tell you something: they would all have been completely impossible to do without what I invented.

Grandmaster Flash

In insider circles, Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash are known as the holy trinity of hip hop. However, we still lack a fundamental piece in the mix: that of the rappers. In the next chapter of Hip Hop Origin, finally, the show begins.


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