“Hip-hop’s foundations were being laid in the 1970s, brick by brick, by DJs in the South Bronx, sometimes even in burnt out or deteriorating buildings. These pioneers invented sampling (isolating one sound and reusing it in another song) and hip-hop’s other key elements through trial and error, mostly by fooling around with records at home.

DJ Kool Herc, a.k.a. Clive Campbell, laid the first building block of hip-hop down in 1973. That was when he reportedly hosted a party in his building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue with a sound system, or sound equipment used to DJ a party. Herc’s sound system was a guitar amp and two turntables.”

We continue that legacy of HIP HOP during our winter immersion workshops where one of our group’s writes and records original songs with two recording engineers here at the Hostos Digital Music Lab. At Hostos you can major in and receive your Associates in Applied Science in Digital Music. Our first day in the workshop we talk about HIP HOP history and think about the “family tree” of HIP HOP beginning with our current favorite rappers and going back in time to trace their artistic genealogy.

Check out the two songs that our 6th graders created below.