Based on the ongoing oral history of Hip Hop project.

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Product Description

The first and only account of hip-hop's birth, told in the never-before-published words of its founders and stars, and highlighted by almost 200 photos and flyers.

"I always knew that, for those that never heard this music, that if they had a chance to hear it, they would have no choice but to love it." --Grandmaster Flash

Hip-hop today is ubiquitous, dominating not only the music industry but also popular culture around the world. Like rock and roll before it, it has permanently transformed music, art, dance, and fashion while capturing millions of listeners-and this vast cultural revolution was all started by a bunch of street kids in the ravaged Bronx of the 1970s. Documenting hip-hop's remarkable genesis for the very first time, this book tells its stories in voices that bristle with vitality, character, humor, and menace, tracing the music from DJ Kool Herc's first parties in 1973 through the release of "Rapper's Delight" in 1979 and the rise of the new school in the mid-'80s. Fricke and Ahearn weave an electric narrative from the never-before-heard accounts of over fifty of hip-hop's founders and stars, old school and new, including Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, DJ Kool Herc, Melle Mel, Grand Wizard Theodore, Grandmaster Caz, Rahiem, Fab 5 Freddy, Tony Tone, and DMC. A wealth of previously unseen photographs, flyers, and posters illustrate the text; noted critic Nelson George introduces it all.

Yes Yes Y'All is a chorus of voices, a tale of artistry in the face of extraordinary adversity, and the definitive history of a revolution created with nothing more than a microphone, a turntable, and a dance floor.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #447477 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-22
• Released on: 2002-10-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Based on the "Hip-Hop Nation" exhibit at Seattle's Experience Music Project and the project's ongoing Oral History Program, this history of the beginnings of hip-hop in 1970s New York City is a lavishly illustrated and lovingly compiled homage to the many artists who contributed to the birth of what soon became and remains today, more than 25 years later a worldwide cultural institution. Editors Fricke and Ahearn (director of the hip-hop film Wild Style) weave the insights and attitudes of nearly 100 of the key players into a multihued and multiracial tapestry that illustrates what the excitement of that era and its music was all about. Since the hip-hop style was first developed in the Bronx borough of New York City as a dance-floor alternative to the then-prominent "disco" sound, the oral narrative is dominated by the voices of well-known DJs: Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. But much of the success of the book is derived from its exploration of the roots of other related hip-hop trends: how the massive new styles of graffiti were both a response to urban violence as well as a way to provoke the interest of downtown New York avant-garde artists; how the competitive world of break dancing was rooted in the rapidly changing and fading gang culture of the Bronx; and how many women were far more active and influential in all types of hip-hop styles than was obvious or recognized at the time. This is an excellent documentation of how early hip-hop expressed "a balance between pain and the celebration of music and movements."
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Chicago Social April, 2003
"The authors, once and for all, define where hip-hop, literally, was born."

About the Author
Jim Fricke is Senior Curator at the Experience Music Project (EMP) in Seattle, Washington. He was curator of the Hip-Hop Nation exhibit, and has been active in the Northwest music scene for more than twenty-five years. He lives in Seattle. Charlie Ahearn is a filmmaker whose 1982 landmark film Wild Style has become a hip-hop classic. He lives in New York City.

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Customer Reviews

a MUST READ for anyone who THINKS they know about hip hop
As many other people, I consider myself a fan of true hip-hop but as they say, you must know where it came from before you can see where it is headed. This book perfectly recollected the beginning of hip-hop, breakdancing and DJ'ing that many of us have grown to know and love. It also has tons of pictures that also capture the essence of Hip Hop in its infancy! Definitely a collector's item!

The Truth That's Never Been Told
I am the original King LaBrue out of the camp of Kool Herc and the Herculoids. Before there was Sugar Hill and 50 Cent, there was King LaBrue--to this day still represents true hip-hop. I plan to write my own account of the true pioneers that should be respected for dedication and commitment for all these years.

Essential
Anyone into Hip Hop must own this book. It's a seminal work. Like Toop's The Rap Attack or Nelson George's Hip Hop America...it must be owned. The most detailed Old School study ever and great visuals.