Beat This: A Hip Hop History (1984)

(police sirens)

♪ ("Renegades of Funk" by Afrika Bambaataa
& Soulsonic Force) ♪

♪ From a different solar system
many, many galaxies away ♪

♪ We are the force of another creation ♪

♪ A new musical revelation ♪

♪ And we're on this musical message ♪

♪ To help the others listen ♪

♪ Improve momentum and ♪

♪ seek the electronic chance ♪

♪ - Like
- Astrology ♪

♪ - Like
- Technology ♪

♪ - Like
- God's Creation ♪

♪ - Like
- The Zulu station ♪

♪ - Like
- To the nation ♪

♪ - Like
- Destroy all nations ♪

♪ - Like
- Militants ♪

♪ - (Like
- Down in sand ♪

♪ - (Like!)
- Through changes, ♪

♪ nothing stays the same ♪

♪ Oh renegades ♪

(music)

"The Renegades of Funk," Afrika Bambaataa
and the Soulsonic Force.

Well, good evening and welcome to another
GBE—a Gary Bird experience—

as the funky forces of the universe
come together

for us to bring another set of
Big Apple jams your way.

In a few minutes my engineer Jonathan E
at Master Control and I gonna go

looking for something perfect,
the perfect beat for you,

especially if you are up at Planet Rock,
The Bronx, or the Zulu Nation,

as in dance formation tonight.

Speaking of dance, have you heard about
he WLIB breakdance contest?

You have a chance
to win a trip to the mother country;

the place that sent Afrika Bambaataa
into a galaxy far, far away.

Who knows? You could be on your way

into the land of the pyramids,
checking it all out

♪ ("Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa
& Soulsonic Force instrumental) ♪

(voice fades in)
...planets, especially Venus and Jupiter,

can be seen in the sky
not long after sunset.

With the glow of twilight
still lingering,

and a dash of near-sightedness,
and some good old human imagination,

and some well intentioned people
will even claim it's "shooting off sparks—

it's as big as a basketball, it has
landing lights", and so on.

Hard to believe? Well, the most
frequently reported UFOs on record

are the planets Venus and Jupiter.
IFOs, once you know a little about the

autokinetic illusion and the night sky.

July 24th, 1948.
An Eastern Airlines flight is en route

from Houston to Atlanta, when suddenly...
(otherworldly electronic noise)

The flight crew, all intelligent, trained
observers, reported the—

(cut off by strange beeps
and sounds)

(banging on timpani)

(robotic voice)
I am the funk overlord.

I have come to take control
of your life.

Who controlled the present,
controls the past.

Who controlled the past,
controls the future. Funk.

♪ (upbeat electronic music) ♪

So this is how Bamb sends 'em
to the street, hip hoppin',

lookin' for the perfect beat.

Rappin', scratchin', breakin', shakin',
the success of hip hop is in the making.

On TV and on radio, you hear and
see it, wherever you go.

Graffiti began on the walls, and now
it's sold in stores and malls.

From uptown to Fifth Avenue,
the journey took a heck of a crew,

from a neighborhood and a street scene,
all around the world to the silver screen.

♪ ("To Be Or Not To Be (The Hitler Rap)"
by Mel Brooks) ♪

♪ Well hi there, people
You know me ♪

♪ I used to run a little joint
called Germany ♪

♪ I was number one
The people's choice ♪

♪ And everybody listened to
my mighty voice ♪

♪ My name is Adolf,
I'm on the mic ♪

♪ I'm gonna hip you to the story
of the New Third Reich ♪

♪ It all began down in Munich town ♪

♪ And pretty soon the word
the word started gettin' around ♪

♪ So I said to Martin Boorman,
I said "Hey Marty," ♪

♪ "Why don't we throw a little
Nazi party?" ♪

♪ So we had an election,
well, kinda sorta ♪

♪ And before you knew it,
hello new order! ♪

♪ To all those mothers in the Fatherland ♪

♪ I said "Achtung baby!
I got me a plan." ♪

♪ They said "What you got, Adolf?
What you gonna do?" ♪

♪ I said "How about this one?
World War Two." ♪

♪ To be or not be ♪

(music fades, record scratching)

All that scratchin' is makin'
me itch!

♪ (mixed-up music) ♪

What once was in the underground
has now, by elements, been found

like anywhere you see fresh meat,
the culture vultures come to eat.

Now with hip hop on his lip,
Malcolm McLaren begins his trip,

how he went to the Planet Rock
and came back to Britain in future shock,

'cuz though he thought punk was the top,
he found the groove was in hip hop.

♪ (hip hop music) ♪

(Malcolm McLaren) I was, uh...

working with a group called
Bow Wow Wow.

I came over there because they were
selling some RCA records

and I was looking to put them on
in a haul in Manhattan somewhere,

but the terrible thing was I was really
stuck for a responsible

and interesting and exciting
kind of opening act.

And there was nothing happening in
New York at all, then a friend of mine

introduced me to a guy who I met on
the street, somewhere down 5th Avenue,

who told me about an incredible scene
that was happening.

Not in Manhattan, but out in a suburb
known as the South Bronx.

And he said if I'd like,
I could come down on a Saturday night

where they were holding a big party
and I would see something

that couldn't possibly have
ever existed in England.

And I decided to actually pitch up
with him on Saturday night.

Upon arriving, the party—
unbeknownst to me,

I thought it was gonna be inside
a house—was actually

out in the open,
in a wasteland,

surrounded by these huge
fired out condominiums.

And there, in the midst of it, was about a
thousand kids, and I couldn't believe it,

I was very, very worried being the
only white guy there,

the cab driver giving me the signature
that I should put my dollars in my socks.

(stammers, laughs) Nevertheless,
I escorted myself across the road

with this guy, made my way through
the crowd, pushing and shoving

until I got to the decks where
the music was coming from.

Shook hands with this huge fat guy,
who later became known to me

as a guy called Afrika Bambaataa.

And what I witnessed was a various
group of different young kids,

who were popping in and out amongst
the decks, messing about with records.

Now, as far as I could see, it was
extraordinary, because the sound

coming out was totally inarticulate,
it was a load of rough noises,

noises that sounded a little like guitar,
but sort of like a concrete chisel

sound, right?
And the sound, I realized,

was actually coming from the way they
were messing around with their hands

on the decks, moving records backwards
and forwards.

But they weren't just doing it with one
record, they were doing it with two,

and they were mixing across one
to the other.

In fact, it was making music
out of other people's music.

♪ (mixed music plays, repeating) ♪

As time went on, and I stuck around
for an hour or so, the crowd was extremely

volatile, and at times would jump
into pitch battles.

But at one point or another, people
would move to the side,

and a group of kids would start
freaking out in the middle,

doing all this incredible
gymnastic dancing.

♪ (distorted, choppy music plays
over beat) ♪

What McLaren saw was called "hip hop",
energy and motion that you could not stop.

Demanding all of your imagination
if you were to share in the celebration.

It wasn't enough to just be good,
you had to be super bad,

'cuz when you hit that floor,
your reputation

was just about all you had.

(McLaren) I think hip hop is being
in control of your body,

that's the whole art of it,
actually understanding that

you're much bigger than you are.
It's a demonstration of your prowess,

if you haven't got a dime in your pocket,
the one thing you can do on

Madison Avenue is spin on your head
and show all the white honkies

moving out of the Chase Manhattan Bank
on their lunch time and say

"Beat that, and if you can't, here's
my cap. Give me a few dollars."

(train moving, faint commotion)

But the story of hip hop doesn't
belong in New York, LA, or London,

that's wrong. The true story begins in
devastation, bad housing, gang wars,

and desperation. In the Bronx ghetto,
or Planet Rock.

Let's take a minute and
turn back the clock.

♪ (hip hop music) ♪

To the first hero of the hip hop groove,
the man who made the people move.

From Jamaica he came with
a sense of rhythm,

and what he brought to the Bronx
was a sound system.

Music he played made life work,
and made him a legend:

Kool DJ Herc.

♪ (hip hop music) ♪

When Kool Herc have a party,
everybody be there.

Lot of people say I'm fun, big fun.
That was the talk for the whole weekend

or the whole summer,
"Where did you party?"

"I was partying with Kool Herc, man."
Ghetto block party, you know,

tennis court, disco... a lot of
other things, too.

♪ ("Space Cowboy" by Jonzun Crew) ♪

I like to buy my records...
right over here.

But now it's not there no more,
called "Sounds and Things."

There used to be a ballroom up there,
I used to play—matter of fact,

I play up there for the transit authority
dinner, one time, and...

Mario Cuomo was there before
becoming governor. Basically, right here.

A place called "Galaxy 2000."

They had a big shootout here one time.
Same time I played at Bronx River.

I came back, I'd seen the canopy knocked
down, the fire escape was let down,

and I knew something was wrong.

The Bronx is on the uplift.
A lot of places are being rehabilitated.

I think there's still more that could
be done. A whole lot.

All those unforgettable promises...
From the South Bronx when the Carters

came over.
Made out of iron, right?

Well, I never left the Bronx,
and I love the Bronx.

I don't wanna leave.

♪ (upbeat funky music) ♪

What Herc did was throw down the sound
of forgotten heroes, like James Brown,

and separate the good stuff from the junk,
with the emphasis on a lot of funk.

And in the middle of a funky sound,
Coke La Rock, his rapper,

would go to town.

The music was hot, very loud,
with participation to excite the crowd.

Then Herc would drop a mighty blast
with a golden oldie from music past.

(motor rumbling)

Sedgwick, 1520... over 10 years ago.

Ooh, look at that medallion,
what happened to that?

It got stolen. That was my badge,
like a sheriff.

Place was packed.

How was it?

It was pretty good. Everybody showed up,
had a good time.

Everybody put on their best that day.

All of the sudden—I don't know,
all of the sudden...

Something happened, made it so that we
didn't get into the parties no more.

I got injured. I got stabbed.
Fatally stabbed, though.

And that just put a hole
through the whole thing.

I walk right into it, and I just...
I didn't know where the knife came from.

I just literally walk into it.
I was hit four times.

The last of them pierced my hand,
and it went all the way through.

It shouldn't have happened.

And that does draw me a show,
you know?

I just stopped. I stopped playing for—
I didn't accept a gig, I wasn't...

I was not out in the public eyes
too much.

That was the rise of a lot of DJs.

Herc wasn't on the scene,
this is our chance.

And a lot of them dashed in and
capitalized on it.

DJs and the music that they used
to come to hear at my party was

all over now.

Kool Herc is not a stepping stone,
he's a horse that can't be rode,

and a bull that can't be stopped,
there ain't a disco I can't rock. Rock on.

It could've been on my obituary that
this was the guy who started this,

this was what he did.

Though he may be a fallen hero,
all will forever say

that in the history of hip hop,
he was its number one DJ.

You see, Herc had started something
that not even his enemies wanted to stop.

Kool DJ Herc had launched the birth of
a movement called hip hop.

In the middle of Savage Skulls and on
the top of the hill with the Seven Crowns,

the gangs were in the Bronx
and they were seriously getting down.

It was little Vietnam, where even the
police watched out for raids,

and were the baddest of them all was a
street gang known as the Black Spades.

And from them emerged a boy
who became the adopted father

of the hip hop generation,
a Zulu Afrika Bambaataa.

I got into street gangs, the Black Spades,
a lot of other groups I was in

before I became a Spade,

I was Savage No Mans

and um, but Spades was one of the groups

that I really loves a lot.

There was a lot of unity in the group

[clears throat]. It was one of the most

hated groups in the whole city cause all

it was about was um, trouble and stuff

and aesthetic. But it was one of the most

organized Black youth groups. As for, if

you mess with them, they would mess with

you. Plus in that year, 1975, um, one of

the brotha's that was close to me, that

lived with me for about two years, by the

name Solsky, got shot by the police on

Pelham Bay, along with some other members

of the Spades. And um, he died and this

other member died and one survived.

♪ (hip hop music plays in background) ♪

Narrator: The violent death of Bam's

best friend, marked for him the end of

the line. And he went back on a vision

that once had occurred in the back of

his youthful mind. A way to fight, yet

maintain peace. An impossible situation,

unless you could create something

powerful, like his memory of the Zulu

nation. [People chant over the sound of

hip hop music on TV]

♪ (hip hop music plays) ♪

H. Rap Brown: I say violence is

necessary. Violence is a part of America's

culture, it is as American as Cherry Pie

American calls for Black people to be

violent. We will use that violence to

get ourselves up.

[voice fades to hip hop music]

Martin Luther King Jr.: will they be

able to sit down together in the name of

brotherhood. I have a dream. One day...

KKK member: Well basically, uh, my goal

in the clan is to bring about a

unification of all of the Anglo-saxon,

Protestant, American citizens into a

bond of unity to counter-act the

philosophies of the minority and...

Nelson Mandela: There are many people

feel that it is useless and futile for us

to continue talking peace and nonviolence

against a government whose reply is only

savage attacks on an unarmored,

defenseless people.

[radio static]

♪ (hip hop music) ♪

Malcolm X: We are not human beings

unless we ourselves, band together and

do whatever, however, whenever,

is necessary to see that our lives

and our property is protected, and I

doubt that any person in here would refuse

to do the same thing, were he in the same

position. Or I should say, were he in the

same condition.

♪ (hip hop music plays) ♪

Narrator: It was with the vision of the

Zulu nation, a trip to Africa, and a

death situation, that produced a man who

put on Zulu dress and began to transform

a violent mix.

♪ (hip hop music plays) ♪

Bembala was always a music man,

a record collector who was a dj jammed.

Now he saw a new idea to use stand and

proud in his career, to put the Bronx

in a music trance and move from violence

to Zulu dance... And so it became hip to

hop in the land known as Planet Rock,

where gangs used to fight in the street

everyday. Now they began to compete

in a different way. As the dj's music

made the house shake, the dancers would

begin to break. Some electric boogie to

move like toys, others would spin and

became b-boys.

♪ (hip hop beat) ♪