He, Mean Gene and their other brother, DJ Cordioo, formed their own group, the L Brothers, and they began performing in the parks too. And our hero, Theodore, had a front-row seat. HENRY: At this point, Flash and other DJs were famously performing in parks and abandoned buildings, huge block parties with massive speakers, loud music and the earliest forms of breakdancing. The Incredible Bongo Band, anything with a danceable beat that they could get to first. THE ROLLING STONES: (Singing) It's the honky tonk women.ĪEROSMITH: (Singing) Walk this way. They'd spend their days searching for new records that they could play before anyone else - The Rolling Stones. Theodore joined his mentors to dig through crates full of vinyl in downtown Manhattan. HENRY: Gene and Flash picked up on Theodore's natural DJ abilities early on and took the pre-teen under their wings. God is smiling on you, but he's frowning too, because only God knows what you go through. MELLE MEL: (Singing) A child is born with no state of mind, blind to the ways of mankind. Gene was also close friends and a creative partner with another future legend of hip-hop, Grandmaster Flash. His older brother, who went by the name Mean Gene, was entrenched in the bubbling hip-hop phenomenon. Theodore was acutely aware of what was going on. We're talking about the 1970s here, the earliest days of hip-hop. HENRY: So let's go back a little further for just a minute. (SOUNDBITE OF INCREDIBLE BONGO BAND'S "APACHE") HENRY: Theodore spent days on end experimenting with this new sound that he, quite literally, stumbled upon, something we now know today as scratching. The sound piqued his interest, so he did it again. Theodore accidently moved the record playing back-and-forth. On one particular day back in 1975, Theodore was playing the Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache." As he reached over to pause the record to hear what his mom was saying. And like most parents, some others scolded him from the other room to turn it down. The young DJ quite literally stumbled upon a technique that would change hip-hop forever - scratching.ĭUSTY HENRY, BYLINE: Like most 12-year-olds, Livingston loved playing records loud in his bedroom. In this episode chronicling 1977, KEXP contributor Dusty Henry takes a look at the groundbreaking innovation by 12-year-old Theodore Livingston, aka Grand Wizzard Theodore. They've jumped around the timeline from 1973 to today, picking certain songs or moments from each year, exploring hip-hop's origins and its continued evolution. and his team highlight a different year of the music's history. One of those stations, KEXP in Seattle, has been celebrating with a weekly podcast, 50 Years Of Hip-Hop. This year, NPR, along with member stations, has been marking the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
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