-
(police sirens)
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♪ ("Renegades of Funk" by Afrika Bambaataa
& Soulsonic Force) ♪
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♪ From a different solar system
many, many galaxies away ♪
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♪ We are the force of another creation ♪
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♪ A new musical revelation ♪
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♪ And we're on this musical message ♪
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♪ To help the others listen ♪
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♪ Improve momentum and ♪
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♪ seek the electronic chance ♪
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♪ - Like
- Astrology ♪
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♪ - Like
- Technology ♪
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♪ - Like
- God's Creation ♪
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♪ - Like
- The Zulu station ♪
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♪ - Like
- To the nation ♪
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♪ - Like
- Destroy all nations ♪
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♪ - Like
- Militants ♪
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♪ - (Like
- Down in sand ♪
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♪ - (Like!)
- Through changes, ♪
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♪ nothing stays the same ♪
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♪ Oh renegades ♪
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(music)
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"The Renegades of Funk," Afrika Bambaataa
and the Soulsonic Force.
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Well, good evening and welcome to another
GBE—a Gary Bird experience—
-
as the funky forces of the universe
come together
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for us to bring another set of
Big Apple jams your way.
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In a few minutes my engineer Jonathan E
at Master Control and I gonna go
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looking for something perfect,
the perfect beat for you,
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especially if you are up at Planet Rock,
The Bronx, or the Zulu Nation,
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as in dance formation tonight.
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Speaking of dance, have you heard about
he WLIB breakdance contest?
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You have a chance
to win a trip to the mother country;
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the place that sent Afrika Bambaataa
into a galaxy far, far away.
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Who knows? You could be on your way
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into the land of the pyramids,
checking it all out
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♪ ("Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa
& Soulsonic Force instrumental) ♪
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(voice fades in)
...planets, especially Venus and Jupiter,
-
can be seen in the sky
not long after sunset.
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With the glow of twilight
still lingering,
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and a dash of near-sightedness,
and some good old human imagination,
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and some well intentioned people
will even claim it's "shooting off sparks—
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it's as big as a basketball, it has
landing lights", and so on.
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Hard to believe? Well, the most
frequently reported UFOs on record
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are the planets Venus and Jupiter.
IFOs, once you know a little about the
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autokinetic illusion and the night sky.
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July 24th, 1948.
An Eastern Airlines flight is en route
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from Houston to Atlanta, when suddenly...
(otherworldly electronic noise)
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The flight crew, all intelligent, trained
observers, reported the—
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(cut off by strange beeps
and sounds)
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(banging on timpani)
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(robotic voice)
I am the funk overlord.
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I have come to take control
of your life.
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Who controlled the present,
controls the past.
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Who controlled the past,
controls the future. Funk.
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♪ (upbeat electronic music) ♪
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So this is how Bamb sends 'em
to the street, hip hoppin',
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lookin' for the perfect beat.
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Rappin', scratchin', breakin', shakin',
the success of hip hop is in the making.
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On TV and on radio, you hear and
see it, wherever you go.
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Graffiti began on the walls, and now
it's sold in stores and malls.
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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.
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♪ ("To Be Or Not To Be (The Hitler Rap)"
by Mel Brooks) ♪
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♪ Well hi there, people
You know me ♪
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♪ I used to run a little joint
called Germany ♪
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♪ I was number one
The people's choice ♪
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♪ And everybody listened to
my mighty voice ♪
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♪ My name is Adolf,
I'm on the mic ♪
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♪ I'm gonna hip you to the story
of the New Third Reich ♪
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♪ It all began down in Munich town ♪
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♪ And pretty soon the word
the word started gettin' around ♪
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♪ So I said to Martin Boorman,
I said "Hey Marty," ♪
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♪ "Why don't we throw a little
Nazi party?" ♪
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♪ So we had an election,
well, kinda sorta ♪
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♪ And before you knew it,
hello new order! ♪
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♪ To all those mothers in the Fatherland ♪
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♪ I said "Achtung baby!
I got me a plan." ♪
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♪ They said "What you got, Adolf?
What you gonna do?" ♪
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♪ I said "How about this one?
World War Two." ♪
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♪ To be or not be ♪
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(music fades, record scratching)
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All that scratchin' is makin'
me itch!
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♪ (mixed-up music) ♪
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What once was in the underground
has now, by elements, been found
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like anywhere you see fresh meat,
the culture vultures come to eat.
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Now with hip hop on his lip,
Malcolm McLaren begins his trip,
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how he went to the Planet Rock
and came back to Britain in future shock,
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'cuz though he thought punk was the top,
he found the groove was in hip hop.
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♪ (hip hop music) ♪
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(Malcolm McLaren) I was, uh...
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working with a group called
Bow Wow Wow.
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I came over there because they were
selling some RCA records
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and I was looking to put them on
in a haul in Manhattan somewhere,
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but the terrible thing was I was really
stuck for a responsible
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and interesting and exciting
kind of opening act.
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And there was nothing happening in
New York at all, then a friend of mine
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introduced me to a guy who I met on
the street, somewhere down 5th Avenue,
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who told me about an incredible scene
that was happening.
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Not in Manhattan, but out in a suburb
known as the South Bronx.
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And he said if I'd like,
I could come down on a Saturday night
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where they were holding a big party
and I would see something
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that couldn't possibly have
ever existed in England.
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And I decided to actually pitch up
with him on Saturday night.
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Upon arriving, the party—
unbeknownst to me,
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I thought it was gonna be inside
a house—was actually
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out in the open,
in a wasteland,
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surrounded by these huge
fired out condominiums.
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And there, in the midst of it, was about a
thousand kids, and I couldn't believe it,
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I was very, very worried being the
only white guy there,
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the cab driver giving me the signature
that I should put my dollars in my socks.
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(stammers, laughs) Nevertheless,
I escorted myself across the road
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with this guy, made my way through
the crowd, pushing and shoving
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until I got to the decks where
the music was coming from.
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Shook hands with this huge fat guy,
who later became known to me
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as a guy called Afrika Bambaataa.
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And what I witnessed was a various
group of different young kids,
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who were popping in and out amongst
the decks, messing about with records.
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Now, as far as I could see, it was
extraordinary, because the sound
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coming out was totally inarticulate,
it was a load of rough noises,
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noises that sounded a little like guitar,
but sort of like a concrete chisel
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sound, right?
And the sound, I realized,
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was actually coming from the way they
were messing around with their hands
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on the decks, moving records backwards
and forwards.
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But they weren't just doing it with one
record, they were doing it with two,
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and they were mixing across one
to the other.
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In fact, it was making music
out of other people's music.
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♪ (mixed music plays, repeating) ♪
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As time went on, and I stuck around
for an hour or so, the crowd was extremely
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volatile, and at times would jump
into pitch battles.
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But at one point or another, people
would move to the side,
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and a group of kids would start
freaking out in the middle,
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doing all this incredible
gymnastic dancing.
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♪ (distorted, choppy music plays
over beat) ♪
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What McLaren saw was called "hip hop",
energy and motion that you could not stop.
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Demanding all of your imagination
if you were to share in the celebration.
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It wasn't enough to just be good,
you had to be super bad,
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'cuz when you hit that floor,
your reputation
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was just about all you had.
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(McLaren) I think hip hop is being
in control of your body,
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that's the whole art of it,
actually understanding that
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you're much bigger than you are.
It's a demonstration of your prowess,
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if you haven't got a dime in your pocket,
the one thing you can do on
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Madison Avenue is spin on your head
and show all the white honkies
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moving out of the Chase Manhattan Bank
on their lunch time and say
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"Beat that, and if you can't, here's
my cap. Give me a few dollars."
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(train moving, faint commotion)
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But the story of hip hop doesn't
belong in New York, LA, or London,
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that's wrong. The true story begins in
devastation, bad housing, gang wars,
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and desperation. In the Bronx ghetto,
or Planet Rock.
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Let's take a minute and
turn back the clock.
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♪ (hip hop music) ♪
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To the first hero of the hip hop groove,
the man who made the people move.
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From Jamaica he came with
a sense of rhythm,
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and what he brought to the Bronx
was a sound system.
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Music he played made life work,
and made him a legend:
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Kool DJ Herc.
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♪ (hip hop music) ♪
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When Kool Herc have a party,
everybody be there.
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Lot of people say I'm fun, big fun.
That was the talk for the whole weekend
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or the whole summer,
"Where did you party?"
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"I was partying with Kool Herc, man."
Ghetto block party, you know,
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tennis court, disco... a lot of
other things, too.
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♪ ("Space Cowboy" by Jonzun Crew) ♪
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I like to buy my records...
right over here.
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But now it's not there no more,
called "Sounds and Things."
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There used to be a ballroom up there,
I used to play—matter of fact,
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I play up there for the transit authority
dinner, one time, and...
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Mario Cuomo was there before
becoming governor. Basically, right here.
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A place called "Galaxy 2000."
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They had a big shootout here one time.
Same time I played at Bronx River.
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I came back, I'd seen the canopy knocked
down, the fire escape was let down,
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and I knew something was wrong.
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The Bronx is on the uplift.
A lot of places are being rehabilitated.
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I think there's still more that could
be done. A whole lot.
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All those unforgettable promises...
From the South Bronx when the Carters
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came over.
Made out of iron, right?
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Well, I never left the Bronx,
and I love the Bronx.
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I don't wanna leave.
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♪ (upbeat funky music) ♪
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What Herc did was throw down the sound
of forgotten heroes, like James Brown,
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and separate the good stuff from the junk,
with the emphasis on a lot of funk.
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And in the middle of a funky sound,
Coke La Rock, his rapper,
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would go to town.
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The music was hot, very loud,
with participation to excite the crowd.
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Then Herc would drop a mighty blast
with a golden oldie from music past.
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(motor rumbling)
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Sedgwick, 1520... over 10 years ago.
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Ooh, look at that medallion,
what happened to that?
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It got stolen. That was my badge,
like a sheriff.
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Place was packed.
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How was it?
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It was pretty good. Everybody showed up,
had a good time.
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Everybody put on their best that day.
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All of the sudden—I don't know,
all of the sudden...
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Something happened, made it so that we
didn't get into the parties no more.
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I got injured. I got stabbed.
Fatally stabbed, though.
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And that just put a hole
through the whole thing.
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I walk right into it, and I just...
I didn't know where the knife came from.
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I just literally walk into it.
I was hit four times.
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The last of them pierced my hand,
and it went all the way through.
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It shouldn't have happened.
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And that does draw me a show,
you know?
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I just stopped. I stopped playing for—
I didn't accept a gig, I wasn't...
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I was not out in the public eyes
too much.
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That was the rise of a lot of DJs.
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Herc wasn't on the scene,
this is our chance.
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And a lot of them dashed in and
capitalized on it.
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DJs and the music that they used
to come to hear at my party was
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all over now.
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Kool Herc is not a stepping stone,
he's a horse that can't be rode,
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and a bull that can't be stopped,
there ain't a disco I can't rock. Rock on.
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It could've been on my obituary that
this was the guy who started this,
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this was what he did.
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Though he may be a fallen hero,
all will forever say
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that in the history of hip hop,
he was its number one DJ.
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You see, Herc had started something
that not even his enemies wanted to stop.
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Kool DJ Herc had launched the birth of
a movement called hip hop.
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In the middle of Savage Skulls and on
the top of the hill with the Seven Crowns,
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the gangs were in the Bronx
and they were seriously getting down.
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It was little Vietnam, where even the
police watched out for raids,
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and were the baddest of them all was a
street gang known as the Black Spades.
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And from them emerged a boy
who became the adopted father
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of the hip hop generation,
a Zulu Afrika Bambaataa.
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I got into street gangs, the Black Spades,
a lot of other groups I was in
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before I became a Spade,
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I was Savage No Mans
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and um, but Spades was one of the groups
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that I really loves a lot.
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There was a lot of unity in the group
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[clears throat]. It was one of the most
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hated groups in the whole city cause all
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it was about was um, trouble and stuff
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and aesthetic. But it was one of the most
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organized Black youth groups. As for, if
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you mess with them, they would mess with
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you. Plus in that year, 1975, um, one of
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the brotha's that was close to me, that
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lived with me for about two years, by the
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name Solsky, got shot by the police on
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Pelham Bay, along with some other members
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of the Spades. And um, he died and this
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other member died and one survived.
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♪ (hip hop music plays in background) ♪
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Narrator: The violent death of Bam's
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best friend, marked for him the end of
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the line. And he went back on a vision
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that once had occurred in the back of
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his youthful mind. A way to fight, yet
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maintain peace. An impossible situation,
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unless you could create something
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powerful, like his memory of the Zulu
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nation. [People chant over the sound of
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hip hop music on TV]
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♪ (hip hop music plays) ♪
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H. Rap Brown: I say violence is
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necessary. Violence is a part of America's
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culture, it is as American as Cherry Pie
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American calls for Black people to be
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violent. We will use that violence to
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get ourselves up.
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[voice fades to hip hop music]
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Martin Luther King Jr.: will they be
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able to sit down together in the name of
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brotherhood. I have a dream. One day...
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KKK member: Well basically, uh, my goal
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in the clan is to bring about a
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unification of all of the Anglo-saxon,
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Protestant, American citizens into a
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bond of unity to counter-act the
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philosophies of the minority and...
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Nelson Mandela: There are many people
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feel that it is useless and futile for us
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to continue talking peace and nonviolence
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against a government whose reply is only
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savage attacks on an unarmored,
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defenseless people.
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[radio static]
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♪ (hip hop music) ♪
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Malcolm X: We are not human beings
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unless we ourselves, band together and
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do whatever, however, whenever,
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is necessary to see that our lives
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and our property is protected, and I
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doubt that any person in here would refuse
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to do the same thing, were he in the same
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position. Or I should say, were he in the
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same condition.
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♪ (hip hop music plays) ♪
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Narrator: It was with the vision of the
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Zulu nation, a trip to Africa, and a
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death situation, that produced a man who
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put on Zulu dress and began to transform
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a violent mix.
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♪ (hip hop music plays) ♪
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Bembala was always a music man,
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a record collector who was a dj jammed.
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Now he saw a new idea to use stand and
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proud in his career, to put the Bronx
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in a music trance and move from violence
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to Zulu dance... And so it became hip to
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hop in the land known as Planet Rock,
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where gangs used to fight in the street
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everyday. Now they began to compete
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in a different way. As the dj's music
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made the house shake, the dancers would
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begin to break. Some electric boogie to
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move like toys, others would spin and
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became b-boys.
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♪ (hip hop beat) ♪