NEW YORK (Tommy Boy Records) - Tom Silverman, founder and CEO of Tommy Boy announces the release of HIP HOP ROOTS on CD, double vinyl and as a full album download. Personally selected and compiled by Silverman, this collection features twelve of the most sampled tracks that would become building blocks of Hip Hop music.
From Rock hits like Billy Squier's "The Big Beat" most recently featured on Jay Z's "
99 Problems" to Bob James' "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" sampled by
Run DMC for "Peter Piper" and LL Cool J on "Rock the Bells"...From Cymande's "Bra" most popularly used in DJ Kool's "
Let Me Clear My Throat" to outerspace hits like UFO by ESG heard in Man Parrish's electro hit, "Boogie Down Bronx".... From
David Bowie's Rock/Funk hit "Fame" lifted by Public
Enemy for "Night of the Living Baseheads" to the Monkees' "
Mary Mary" quoted by
Run DMC for their hit of the same title...Disco, Funk, Soul, Rock, Jazz, Pop and Reggae were united and extended under the DJs hands to mold into Hip Hop.
In his liner notes, Silverman hearkens back to 1980, in the "Breaks Room", at Downstairs Records, where a "music revolution was being born." In this room, one could buy vinyl by artists such as "Dennis Coffey, Bob James, Jimmy Castor, The Eagles, Incredible Bongo Band, Herman
Kelly and Life, The
Monkees and so many more that seemingly had nothing to do with each other" except for the fact that the founding fathers of Hip Hop were digging them up and rocking them in the Bronx.
He also recounts, in 1980, going to the legendary T- Connection, in the Bronx, to see
Afrika Bambaataa spin. "There, working the turntables, was Afrika Bambaataa... To his left and right were
Jazzy Jay and Red Alert waiting for their turn to mix... Some of the records had the label steamed off so other DJs would not know what he was playing. Evidently his efforts were in vain because 25 years later, DJs and producers are still relying on the beats that he, Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash discovered."
Legendary DJ and producer,
Jazzy Jay, added his extra special flavor to the compilation by editing a few tracks the way he would have done live in 1980, at the T-Connection.
Tom Silverman summarizes, "I believe that the strength of Hip Hop over 26 years unlike any other kind of music has been its inclusive nature. Rather than be elitist or separatist, Hip Hop is accepting and absorbing of outside influences. African, Latin, Disco, Funk, or the corniest Pop or soundtracks were accepted and made the genre stronger just as
America is made strong by its confluence of cultures and rainbow of peoples."
"R&B,
Disco and Funk were king in urban
America during the mid 70's. From
Barry White to Johnnie Taylor, from Rick
James to Johnny "
Guitar" Watson, from Parliament- Funkadelic to the Jacksons,
Black music was evolving rapidly. In New York City, the
Black DJs on the
Disco scene embraced and fostered the danceable side of these sounds lead by legends such as Grandmaster Flowers, Pete "DJ" Jones, Luvbug Starski, Plummer, and DJ Hollywood. But in the Bronx, where the Jamaican influence was strongest, a DJ named Kool Herc and his Jamaican-style sound system, the Herculords, was pioneering a new sound. Herc along with Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, GrandWizzard Theodore and others were looking for new funky beats and using turntable dexterity to extend those one or two bar breaks into the rhythms that would give birth to Hip Hop.
"I had been writing an article on the new phenomenon of "break beats," back in 1980, for "Dance
Music Report," the newsletter that I published. One of our retail reporters, Downstairs Music, located in the subway mezzanine on 6th Ave. and 42nd St., had opened a new room in their store called the "Breaks Room." A 16-year-old kid, named Roye Meighan, ran the little room that was the size of a large walk-in closet.
Behind the counter, the wall was covered with albums and 45's, some legitimate, some bootlegs, by artists such as
Dennis Coffey, Bob James, Jimmy Castor, The Eagles, Incredible Bongo Band, Herman
Kelly and Life, The
Monkees and so many more that seemingly had nothing to do with each other. Three teenagers came in together and asked to buy a few records and paid for them as a group. They were young beginning DJs who planned to share their collection of breaks. I asked Roye how they knew what to buy. He said there was this DJ in the Bronx called
Afrika Bambaataa who was exposing most of this "new" music. These were not necessarily hits. They were all underground tracks that had been underexposed, especially to the urban marketplace. Someone was discovering them and exposing them because in this little room, under the streets of New York, a music revolution was being born.
"I first heard
Afrika Bambaataa spin, in 1980, at the T- Connection, on White Plains Road, in the Bronx. Across the street from the elevated train, the T-Connection was a non- descript second floor walk up. I was screened at the bottom of the stairs. I passed three or four kids hanging on the stairs and, as I approached the door at the top of the stairs, the funky beat of the music grew louder. Inside, nearly 100 kids were grooving to the funky sound of beats looped by a DJ. There was a small stage on one side of the room and a small bar on the other side. There were stairs leading up to a balcony where the DJ was set up. Up there, working the turntables, was
Afrika Bambaataa surrounded by about 10 other kids looking on. To his left and right were
Jazzy Jay and Red Alert waiting for their turn to mix. Bambaataa was playing mostly albums and some 45's and 12-inches. Many of the labels were marked with start point on the label. Some of the records had the label steamed off so other DJs would not know what he was playing. Evidently his efforts were in vain because 25 years later, DJs and producers are still relying on the beats that he, Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash discovered.
"This was the time and place where
Disco absorbed Funk and Soul, Rock and Jazz, Pop and Reggae and became Hip Hop. These songs were the building blocks of Hip Hop and continue grow in stature with each passing year. I believe that the strength of Hip Hop over 26 years unlike any other kind of music has been its inclusive nature. Rather than be elitist or separatist, Hip Hop is accepting and absorbing of outside influences. African, Latin, Disco, Funk, or the corniest Pop or soundtracks were accepted and made the genre stronger just as
America is made strong by its confluence of cultures and rainbow of peoples."
