The True School Park Jam Series is becoming one of my favorite video documentaries around. This is a trailer for the upcoming episode which will feature Afrika Bambaataa, Kool DJ Red Alert, and The Original Jazzy Jay reuniting on the wheels of steel for the first time in over 25 years. If you like this, check out the last episode featuring Biz Markie and Kid Capri.

Big ups to Mark Carranceja and Noisemaker Media for sending this video over. This is their most recent episode of The True School Park Jam Series featuring Biz Markie and Kid Capri.

Distrakt is one of my favorite underground emcees. Recently, he’s been doing a lot of work with Sedgwick and Cedar. This video walks you through his newest creation, a FREE downloadable interactive study of the history of hip-hop. Dope and educational.

Whenever Victor Arzu approaches the corner of East 169th Street and Franklin Avenue in his grandmother’s neighborhood, Morrisania, in the South Bronx, he usually takes a moment to check out some posters on a wall depicting the hip-hop artist Grandmaster Flash.

Right underneath the image, in stencil-like lettering, the poster tells him: “Grandmaster Flash played the records they clapped for/ back when the dancefloor was packed at the Black Door.” (more…)

Afrika Bambaataa and other pioneers of hip hop are scheduled to travel to Ithaca, N.Y., to speak at a two-day conference celebrating Cornell University Library’s acquisition of Born in the Bronx: The Legacy and Evolution of Hip Hop, a collection that documents the early days of hip hop with recordings, photographs, posters and more.

According to news sources, events on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 are scheduled to include music, performances and lectures by several of hip hop’s founders, and roundtable discussions led by prominent speakers from the hip hop and academic communities. Cornell University Library will host the event, which will highlight the one-of-akind historical materials. (more…)

As hip-hop continues to thrive and influence today’s mainstream pop culture after three decades of growth, the world-famous Rock Steady Crew are on the verge their 31st Anniversary as a pioneering b-boy crew.

To celebrate they plans to throw a historic four-day celebration, with things kicking off in New York City beginning Thursday, July 24 with the legendary Celebrity Benefit Basketball Challenge, and will wrap on Sunday, July 27 with the Outdoor Concert in Newark, New Jersey as an official event at the Third Annual Lincoln Park Music Festival. (more…)

A Fordham University professor has been tapped as an expert for the popular PBS show, History Detectives. Mark Naison, Ph.D., professor of African and African-American studies, provided news commentary for an upcoming episode in which the show’s hosts attempted to find out if 1520 Sedgwick Ave. in the Bronx was the birthplace of Hip-Hop.

“I had a great time with the crew for this show and am proud we had a chance to showcase the work we do before a national audience,” said Naison, the principal investigator for the University’s Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP). Naison was interviewed on the Rose Hill campus for an episode set to air in August. Tukufu Zuberi, Ph.D., one of the show’s “detectives” and chair of the sociology department at the University of Pennsylvania, led the interview. (more…)

The birthplace of hip-hop may be saved from gentrification, for the time being.

In an unusual move, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development has rejected the sale of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, a culturally iconic west Bronx apartment building, to a high-profile real estate developing group, saying that the financing for the estimated $9 million purchase price is not viable under the current rent restrictions, according to an announcement made by government officials on Monday afternoon. (more…)

The grandfather of Hip Hop, DJ Grandmaster Flash, launches his new website in celebration of Black History Month. And June 10, will mark the release of Grandmaster Flash’s Memoirs “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash – My Life My Beats.”
 
Grandmaster Flash is one of Hip Hop’s pioneers: he made it his life’s work to create and perfect the art of DJing. In his adolescent years in the Bronx, Grandmaster Flash was the first DJ to use the turntables as an instrument. He also created the very first beat box machine, which remains a staple of Hip Hop, despite newer technology. (more…)

An oldie … but a classic!