Kool Herc and Hip Hop’s 40th Anniversary on Episode 063 of The NY Hip Hop Report

Episode 63 of the weekly New York hip hop radio talk show, The NY Hip Hop Report, fell on Sunday, August 11, 2013. The date was significant because it signified the 40th anniversary of a DJ Kool Herc party, widely chosen as the date that hip hop music and culture was born. While Herc’s parties only provided a soundtrack to a social movement well on its way, it was his inventive style and ability to move the crowd which would help create a vehicle by which a monumental cultural force would move on to worldwide stature.

To help celebrate the occasion, New York’s City Parks Foundation, as part of their summer-long free concert series, provided ample opportunity for hip hop’s pioneering “Godfather” to usher in the next decade of hip hop music and culture, by paying tribute to the past.

While the topic of the show was to recap and review the assorted shows and events that took place the weekend of the milestone, show hosts Manny Faces and Steven Ortiz of Birthplace Magazine put the call out to the public, to ask them to call in and speak on what 40 years of hip hop meant to them.

The response was heavy, as music fans and participants, including Geechi Suede from acclaimed rap duo Camp Lo, called in to share their feelings about the anniversary of the music and culture that they live and love.

Click here to listen to the entire “Happy Birthday Hip Hop” episode, including show notes, links to items mention during the show, and The NY Hip Hop Report’s full show archives, which include episodes covering a vast array of New York hip hop-related topics, including veterans and pioneers such as Big Daddy Kane and Ralph McDaniels, as well as contemporary artists like Homeboy Sandman and many more.