VHI To Air 5 Part Series on History of Hip-Hip

[DudeAsInCool]

Hip-Hop: Block Parties to Blockbusters

By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN

Published: October 4, 2004

In the mid-1970's, when middle-class teenagers were learning to fear the terrible delicacy of their parents' stereo systems and the harsh skidding sound that betrayed clumsiness with the needle, a non-middle-class kid named Joseph Saddler, of the South Bronx, had an idea. He didn't want to play by the rules of LP's anymore. He wanted to abuse them.

Every great record had one great part, he thought, but sometimes the great part was too just short. To prolong the rhythms he liked - on disco records, mostly- he started jumping the needle around, using two turntables and wantonly switching channels on a mixer. With that transgression Mr. Saddler, who went by Grandmaster Flash, invented modern DJing, according to "And You Don't Stop: 30 Years of Hip-Hop," a serious and absorbing five-part documentary that begins tonight of VH1.

You can read the full story here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/04/arts/tel...heff.html?8hpib