On reggae and hip-hop

DJ Kool Herc: ‘When I extended the break, people were ecstatic, because that was the best part of the record to dance to.’

DJ Kool Herc, the chief architect of hip-hop, was born Clive Campbell in Kingston, Jamaica. At the age of twelve, in the winter of 1967, Campbell moved to Bronx, New York. The year he migrated to America, sound-system culture in Jamaica had a ubiquitous presence in Kingston’s lower-class neighbourhoods.
As a twelve-year-old preteen now living in the Bronx, Campbell already possessed a persistent reggae and sound-system consciousness having experienced the innovative music of
Prince Buster, the Skatalites, Don Drummond, and dancehall deejay U-Roy.

At eighteen, Campbell attempted to recreate the Jamaican dancehall experience in the Bronx by spinning the latest Jamaican reggae records at neighbourhood parties, but his young African-American audience was not feeling the reggae beat and did not comprehend the Jamaican patois rhymes of sound-system MCs known as toasters.
As DJ Kool Herc, Campbell shifted to playing funk records, but his reggae background caused him to favour funk with heavy-weight bass lines and lively percussive drumming. Kool Herc’s record selections were transmitted through hi-fi stereo equipment that spoke with the same awesome power and sonic quality of a roots Jamaican sound system.
The selector, as a deejay is called on a reggae sound system, though using one turntable-the norm during the ’60s and ’70s- was still capable of altering the arrangement of a tune spinning off a record on the turntable platter. The selector skillfully inflicted a completely different sound context on a roots reggae recording by manipulating the controls on the sound system’s amplifier to briefly remove the bass on a tune, accentuate the singing of the song’s vocalist, and highlight the harmony of trumpet, saxophone, and trombone. The selector would create tension in a live remix by bringing back the bass booming like a compact implosion.
By the ’70s, the selector had the ability to vary the sonic texture of the recording by creatively deploying reverb and echo chamber to repeat the sweetest elements of a vocal or horn solo and as a special sound effect that dramatized certain aspects of the recording with a live feel.

American Electronic Music Owes It All to People of Color



Kool Herc’s approach to creating something fresh from pre ­recorded funk on vinyl was different because he used two turnta­bles. But his approach was similar in that he shared the same objec­tive as the selector, which was to do a live remix of the record to heighten the entertainment of his audience. He extended the intox­icating rhythmic feel of percussive conga, bongo, or trap drums sizzling the break of records like Mandrill’s “Fencewalk,” the Incredible Bongo Band’s “Apache,” and the live version of James Brown’s “Give It Up, Turn It Loose” by playing the same record on two turntables using a sound mixer to seamlessly prolong the per­cussive breakbeats.

Herc pioneered the innovative use of two turntables and a sound mixer as active instruments that became more than passive facilitators, more than just pieces of electronic equipment that merely played what was recorded on vinyl.

Invention Hot Spot: Birth of Hip-Hop in the Bronx, New York, in the 1970s


These electronic instruments were now used to rearrange pre­recorded music to suit the immediate needs of the disco and the dance floor. When DJ Kool Herc rocked a block party, dispatching African­ American funk with the overwhelming sonic power of a reggae sound system, no other deejay dared to compete.

Kool Herc’s party flyer



Text from:
Dubwise : reasoning from the reggae underground
Chapter: Raggamuffin Rap: The Interconnections of Reggae and Hip-Hop
Author:
Klive Walker, 2005.

Deconstructing Hip Hop

Deconstructing Hip Hop is a great video series running from 2012 way back before “how to sound like” videos, the show in which “geek meets ghetto” a.k.a. where hip hop classics are broken down using original samples and digital audio tools.

The Sharpest and The Sickest – STEP – Jah Billah Rmx

Jah Billah – Holy Dub ft. All Your Favorites

Jah Billah dubs Holy Mountain, hottest tune right now ushering a new era of dub music. Track featuring All Your Favorites: DJ Khaled, Buju Banton, Sizzla, Mavado, 070 Shake and late and great Billie Boyo.

Fela Kuti & De La Soul – Fela Soul

Since digital revolution, good music is not lacking, just in need of digital crate diggin.
Back in 2011 Amerigo Gazaway crafted this musical gem:

Check out full album and instrumentals.

On selecting Madonna in a dance

It was not unusual for the selector to play Latin, Hip Hop, Disco, Rock & Roll, other music, including songs like Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’, and ‘Ain’t Nothing Going on but the Rent’ as examples. Of course these constitute hit songs in their particular genres and their popularity catapulted them into the Jamaican dance scene where they are baptized in Dancehall aesthetic and practice (‘dance- hallified’), especially through dance styles such as the ‘bubble’ along with other directions from the selector. These directions continued in the typical Dancehall style until dawn when the event ended.

From: The dance, found in:
Making space: Kingston’s Dancehall culture and its philosophy of ‘boundarylessness’.
Author: Sonjah Stanley Niaah. 2004. African Identities.
Image source: PASSA PASSA KINGSTON JAMAICA

ONI – Sve Najbolje – Jah Billah RMX

One For The Haters Incorporated.
4th In The ONI Rmx Series.
Still On That 8Bit Dub Hop Tip.
youtu.be/c6hMm-fw52s

Magellano – Testament – Jah Billah rmx

The Mighty Ginsu ft. The DJ Dont Stop – Souljahs Rebel

Outside of generic riddims and sound trends here comes project exciting with revolutionary  reality and consciousness, so best check out “Time Is the Key” album.

The Mighty Ginsu, Merk Sicksteen ft. DJ Dont Stop – Step (Babylon Fall Mix)

Watch how di Yardman step! This is straight personal anthem for last month or so haffi be featured right here. Original ragga hip hop vibes is a mus so everyone betta check out this crucial global Kingston – Torino connection. Bigup all anti-badmind friend!
“It is a Movement in Revolutionary Sound, a Movement of a People.”

The Mighty Ginsu & Merk Sicksteen ft. DJ Dont Stop – Step (Babylon Fall Mix)

Selected Dubography

Just a handfull of dubs & remixes on YT: