Fab Five Freddy

Fred Brathewaite was born 1959, and is most widely known as Fab Five Freddy. He was a graffiti artist from the Bronx who is accredited for spreading rap beyond the Bronx boarders. In the year 1980 Freddy was cast in the movie Downtown 81, and shortly after helped produce the movie Wild Style. In April of 1981, Freddy was booked in the art show “Beyond Words” at the Mudd Club, which was the first time that the Hip-Hop graffiti scene was presented in a NYC art show. After "Beyond Words" Freddy was booked in more art shows with other fellow graffiti artists. Later in the same year Blondie came out with a song called “Rapture,” where Freddy had a brief cameo. This was the first rap video on MTV. One of Freddy’s graffiti art pieces titled “Mr. Potato Head” is displayed in the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Snoop Dogg's response to Don Imus

On April 4, 2007, Don Imus described the Rutger's University female basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." There was immediate negative backlash from the media, and from the rapper Snoop Dogg. Snoop Dogg, who has used derogatory slang terms for woman in his lyrics before, felt that the lyrics in his songs are not in the "same league" as Imus' comment. Snoop Dogg said, "(Rappers) are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We're talking about hoes that's in the 'hood that ain't doing shit, that's trying to get a nigga for his money. These are two separate things. First of all, we ain't no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC going hard on black girls. We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them muthafuckas say we are in the same league as him. Kick him off the air forever." ( http://jonahwalters.blogspot.com/2007/04/snoop-dogg-on-don-imus.html)
I do agree that what Imus said was completely out of context, and that he should suffer consequences for his actions, on the other hand is Snoop Dogg completely in the right with his comment? Is he in a completely different league then Imus? I thought that this would be a good question to spark some interesting responses for my blog entry.

Kool DJ Herc

Kool DJ Herc, also known as Clive Campbell, was born on April 16, 1955 in Kingston Jamaica. He was a developer of Hip-Hop in the early 1970s, who is accredited for creating break-beat DJing. He moved to the Bronx at the age of 12 and loved to study and use sound systems. He started to throw his own free neighborhood parties which were the locations of creating the break-beat DJ style. Break-beat DJing is when funk songs are played, which feature percussion, that are isolated and repeated in order to have long lasting dance parties. He is remembered for having outstanding sound systems, and for initially using Reggae music rather then funk, but due to popular demand he later switched to funk. Herc created the Herculords, an MC crew, where rap and reggae artists collaborated and helped influence the growth of both genres of music. Herc was later stabbed to death at one of his own parties in the late 1970s. Although Herc died a sudden and upsetting death, he will forever be remembered for his early influence on the Hip-Hop culture.

Rock Steady Crew

Rock Steady Crew was a Hip-Hop and breakdancing crew that was established in 1977 in New York. The Crew originally consisted of Jimmy D and Jojo. In the year of 1979 Crazy Legs and Lenny Len were added to the crew. Crazy Legs was a Puerto Rican that grew up in the Bronx who was determined to stear clear from gang life, and became extremely involved in breakdancing. Lenny Len was also a determined breakdancer who loved Hip-Hop. With Crazy Legs and Lenny Len as new additions in Rock Steady Crew, the crew grew in its popularity almost immediately. Although Crazy Legs was originially from the Bronx, when he joined the crew he was living in Manhattan. He would travel to the Bronx on the weekends, but after a while it became too expensive. He formed his own Rock Steady Chapter in Manhattan and the crew became very well known. Although Rock Steady Crew had many obsticles to overcome, the crew helped spread the new form of dancing, and are a contributing factor to the spread of the development of Hip-Hop.

Development of Graffiti

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Graffiti was formed in the early 1960s. It originally was only used as a way for street gangs to mark their territory before it became an art form and later lead to take a part in the development of Hip-Hop.
Before street gangs spray-painted their territory, hieroglyphics were considered a very early form of Graffiti. According to dictionary.com hieroglyphics are “designating or pertaining to a pictographic script, particularly that of the ancient Egyptians, in which many of the symbols are conventionalized, recognizable pictures of the things represented.”
Prior to the developement of rap in the 1970s, MCs or DJs would make announcements to a crowd of people at a party or social setting in rhythmic fashion. Later the announcements began to rhyme and people started to create styles of their own with their own rhyme patterns.

Chapter 5, "Yes Yes Y'all"

In Chapter 5, of "Yes Yes Y'all" on page 180, the pages are talking about the original spread of Hip-Hop. Clubs played a major role in helping the spread and popularity of Hip-Hop. Club owners would go around and find multiple rappers to come perform at their clubs. Clubs changed from once an older generation form of entertainment, to something that was geared toward high school and college students. Clubs started doubling in their size and by 1979 were extremely popular.
Once Clubs became popular and helped the spread of HipHop and rapping, the radio was then the next step. After rappers became popular locally they would strive to get on the air waves. HipHop was slowly but surely developing a name for itself.