March 4, 2008
Birthplace of Hip Hop Safe For Now
Hip hop was born in the Bronx, at 1520 Sedgwick Ave, when DJ Kool Herc started throwing parties and playing the breaks, something nobody had done before. But for the last year, the future of 1520 Sedgwick Ave, or Sedgwick and Cedar, has been in question as the landlord tried to remove the 100 unit apartment complex the Mitchel-Lama housing program, which gives landlords tax breaks for renting below market rate. Fortunately for fans of hip hop and affordable housing, the city has made an unprecedented move to block the sale because it “was not viable under current rent restrictions,” protecting the building from being bought and turned into luxury hip hop condos.
Here’s a piece of documentary with a British narrator and DJ Kool Herc explaining how hip hop was born. It also features Grandwizard Theodore, more recently caught performing the little known blindfolded-record-on-the-head scratch.
