Hip Hop

Major Clearinghouses

• hiphop.sh
• allhiphop.com
• Hip Hop record labels sorted by chart performance (poly-graph.co)

Documentaries/Media Reports

• Deadly Art of Survival (Charlie Ahearn, 1979)
• Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1982)
• Big Fun in the Big Town (1986 Dutch doc): Grandmaster Flash; Doug E. Fresh; Roxanne Shante (12:40); Run DMC (25:05); Russell Simmons (26:25)
• And You Don’t Stop (VH1 documentary by Dana Perry)
• Founding fathers: The Untold Story of Hip Hop
• Beyond Beats and Rhymes:
  • online video;   trailer
  • ITV educational resource guides
  • Byron Hurt (director) website with resources
• Early 1990s objections (Rev. Calvin Butts)
  • 1993 NBC Gangsta Rap report  part 1 (Rev. Calvin Butts, Jesse Jackson 2:25);  part 2 (Mark Gunn, KACE-FM, Jesse Jackson 2:40)
  • 1993? PBS? “Rapping Rap” gangsta rap exposé (Rev. Calvin Butts) , part 1, part 2
  • Video Music Box: Rap Debate with Calvin Butts and Ice-T (WNYC, 6/30/1993)
  • 1994 SPECIAL REPORT: “GANGSTA RAP PROTEST” (Hezakya News)
• History of the Birth of Hip Hop Culture (with Afrika Bambaataa), part 1
• Dr. Dre early MTV interview  (1989: “Everything we say on our records is true,” 1:08)
• 2009 Chuck D On the Real Off the Record (interview with DMC) (search Chuck D)
• Planet Rock: The Story of Hip Hop and the Crack Generation (2011)
• Google Doodle: 44th Anniversary of Hip Hop (8/11/2017)

Old School sites

• OldSchoolHipHop.com
• thafoundation.com
• West Coast Pioneers (includes early video)
• Fab Five Freddy (Fred Brathwaite)
• Early rap goes to downtown New York, 1981
• How Hip Hop Came Downtown (East Village Eye)
• Breakin’ ‘n’ Enterin’

Rap

• Afrika Bambaataa on the roots of hip hop; Bambaataa’s 40,000 piece vinyl collection
• Sugar Hill Gang, “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) (official video w/lyrics); on Soul Train
  • Grandmaster Caz
    • on Big Bank Hank
    • on early history and Coke La Rock
    • on gangsta rap (3:55-)
  • Grandmaster Caz talks Big Bank Hank (VLAD TV)
  • Brian Williams, Lester Holt (Jimmy Fallon Show)
  • Nile Rodgers on “Rapper’s Delight” (Good Times 1:05; Fab 5 Freddy, Blondie, The Clash 1:50); w/Pharrell and Daft Punk, “Get Lucky“
  • Nile Rodgers Discusses Legendary Bassline of “Good Times,” Sampling & FOLD! Festival (4:10 “Who played this first?”; 8:30, “Blurred lines”; 9:55, the Intro sounds like an interpolation; 10:25 cousin in Kool and the Gang–inspiration, not interpellation)
  • Chic and Sugarhill Gang together

  • African Underground: Democracy in Dakar – Episode 1 (5)

• Kurtis Blow, “The Breaks” (1980) (Soul Train)
• Blondie, “Rapture” (1980); Acura car commercial (2015); original viral video
• Kool Moe D versus Busy Bee at Harlem World, December 1981
• Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, “The Message” (1982); video w/lyrics (close caption)
  • Melle Mel explains why “The Message” was the single most important song in hip hop” (part 4) (VLAD TV, 3/21/2021; 3:10)
  • How We Made: Jiggs Chase and Ed Fletcher on The Message (The Guardian, 5/27/2013)
  • Bassist Doug Wimbish on “The Message“
• Afrika Bambaataa, “Planet Rock” (1982) and Kraftwerk, “Numbers” (1981) sample
• Roxanne Shante
  • “Roxanne’s Revenge” original street version (with samples); UTFO, “Roxanne Roxanne“
  • In Big Fun in the Big City (12:35)
• Marley Marl recreating MC Shan’s “The Bridge“; “The Bridge” samples
• Eric B. and Rakim
  • “Eric B. is President” sample sources
  • Marley Marl recreates
  • “Microphone Fiend” (AWB “School Boy Crush” sample)
  • Rakim talks musical upbringing (jazz saxophone)
  • Rakim interview (atlantic.com, 4/23/2012)
• Salt -N- Pepa
  • “My Mic Sound Nice” (live 1987); lyrics
  • “Push It” (1986)
• Public Enemy
  • “Fight the Power” sample sources
  • “Fight the Power” music video
  • Do the Right Thing opening credits (full); partial; 
    • Do the Right Thing: racist stereotypes (clip)
    • Spike Lee Vaccinate the Block commercial (2021)
  • “How Public Enemy Crafted the Athem ‘Fight the Power’” (Rolling Stone, 6/30/2014)
• A Mississippi Rapper Claims Biggie Copied His Song to Make “Juicy.” Here’s Why It Could All Be a Big Coincidence. (7/26/2022)
• The Roots, “What They Do”
• Kendrick Lamar
  • interview (Breakfast Club Power 105, 11/4/14): on his white audience (6:10), on Eminem (20:33)
  • Kendrick Lamar And J. Cole Talk About Eminem (2014)
• Eminem
  • Surprise concert, MSU 2002 (MTV Jammed)
  • 8 Mile Rap Battles; w/English subtitles (interpretation of lyrics on rapgenius.com)
  • Eminem Blows Up (Rolling Stone, 1999)
  • The Slim Shady LP at 20 (The Ringer, 2019)
  • Miles Davis on Bill Evans (from Davis’s autobiography)
• L L Cool J workout on The View

• The Zunguzung melody (Yellowman) in hip hop
• Online hip hop lyrics archive
• understandrap.com
• Rapping baby (Alim Kamara’s nephew Khalil)
• 27 styles of rapping (Mac Lethal)
• Cleverlys covers:
  • Flo Rida’s “Low”;  Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling”

DJs

• Ultimate Breaks and Beats track listings: on Wikipedia, with LP covers
• Second Hand Songs (database of covers and samples)
• the-breaks.com (database of samples)
• whosampled.com (examples of hop hop recordings and the samples that went into them)
• waxpoetics
• Kool Herc
  • djkoolherc.com
  • Birth of hip hop in Cedar Park, Bronx
  • The Bronx’s Hip Hop Boulevard (VV, 3/1/2016)
  • 1520 Sedgwick Ave., Hip Hop Blvd. (google maps)
• Afrika Bambaataa
  • “A Recent Interview w/ Afrika Bambaataa: History, Influence & Direction” (Davey D, 2010)
  • “Finding Hip-Hop’s Beginning in Afrika Bambaataa’s 40,000-Deep Record Collection” (Village Voice, 7/17/13)

• Grand Wizard Theodore
  • on discovering scratching (from Scratch, 0:45)
  • inventing the scratch (interview, 1:10)
  • birth of the scratch (interview 9:30)
  • creator of the scratch (interview, hiphopslam.com)
  • at work (2010)
  • a re-enactment of discovering scratching
• Grandmaster Flash
  • On “The Get Down” (2016) (NY Times, 8/26/2016)
• Berklee College of Music (2004) offers course in turntable technique, NY Times article (Wesleyan access only)
• Roland TR 808 drum machine demo
• International DJs(Japan)
  • DJ Kentaro
    • 2002 DMC Championships
    • Loop Daigakuin (bird’s eye view)
    • DJ Kentaro and DJ Craze, 2015 World Finals
  • DJ Izoh: 2012 DMC World Championships

Beatbox

• Nicole Paris

Producers

• Marley Marl

Breakdance

• bboy.org
• Rock Steady Crew (featured in Style Wars, Wild Style)
• TikTok dance
  • Mariebustinmoves (mother and daughter TikTok)
  • The Original Renegade (NYT, 2020)
  • JaQuel Knight (Dance Magazine, 2022)
• Tyla, “It’s just part of our culture” (Essence, 2023)

Graffiti

• 149st.com (click on History)
• Style Wars (1983 documentary)
• Style Wars (1983) (Skeem and his mother, 4:35)
• Downtown 81 (Basquiat, Fab 5 Freddy, Lee Quinones, 4:10)
• Lady Pink (Sandra Fabara, featured in Wild Style)
• Zephyr (appeared in Style Wars, Wild Style)
• “Graffiti Art of the City, from the Bronx to Brooklyn” (NY Times Aug. 2013)

Misc.

• Rap Dictionary
• NCAA: HIstory of Final Four Style and Fashion

Blogs

• okayplayer.com (blogs, discussion boards, home of The Roots)

Clean up Rap Campaigns

• Hip Hop Summit Action Network (Russell Simmons): 3 epithets should be banned (Washington Post, 4/24/2007)
• Enough is Enough Campaign
• Critics of Gangster Rap (thefreeradical)

Legal Issues

• UCLA/Columbia University Copyright Infringement Project
• Jay-Z Versus the Sample Troll
• George Clinton and Hank Shocklee video interview on sampling

News

• Black artists hold all top 10 pop singles chart slots (October 2003); Billboard Hot 100 chart (Oct. 11, 2003); Billboard Hot 100 chart with 8 of the top 10 pop singles by black artists (May 13, 1972)
• “Kanye is Boring Now” (theroot.com, 7/27/2014)
• “Jay-Z to Oprah: Hip Hop has done more for racial relations than most cultural icons” (video)
  • Korean Disney Princess: “When we see different kinds of stories, people living different kinds of lives, it really does help build understanding with people from other cultures who look different than us”
• Highest Paid Hip Hop Acts (Forbes, 2016)
• Kendrick Lamar
  • What Do Kendrick and Kanye Owe Women Listeners (Tomi Obaro, buzzfeed, 4/5/2016)
  • Kendrick Lamar’s Holy Spirit (Hua Hsu, New Yorker, 5/1/2017)
  • “Humble”
    • Sets off natural beauty debate (papermag.com)
• Snoop Dogg: Rappers these days all sound the same
• “Rappers are Now Singers. Thanks Drake” (Jon Caramanica, NYT, 11/24/2019) (Wes access only)
  • “Fans Bash NY Times for Claiming Drake Made Sing-Rap Popular” (Marisa Mendez, XXL, 11/26/2019)
  • “The New York Times gave Drake credit for rap-singing. People aren’t having it” (Lisa Respers France, CNN, 11/27/2019)
• Ice Cube and Tucker Carlson (7/26/2023)

Hip Hop at 50

• https://the50thanniversaryofhip-hop.com/
• https://hiphop50.queenslibrary.org/

• KRS-One Moves Into 1520 Sedgwick To Celebrate Hip-Hop’s 50th Anniversary

Charry’s Global Hip Hop links