Half a century ago, within the confines of a recreation room nestled in a West Bronx apartment building, an iconic birthday celebration gave rise to the unmistakable auditory tapestry we now identify as hip-hop. At the heart of this revolutionary genesis stands Clive Campbell, known as DJ Kool Herc, to whom the credit rightfully belongs. But who started the movement in Milwaukee?
Well, we know the answer.
A few years back, we performed our own search for the city’s first hip-hop song in a long-form podcast called Backspin. Over six episodes, 88Nine’s former music director Justin Barney teamed up with one of the city’s experts in the genre — Tyrone Miller, aka DJ Bizzon — to investigate that mystery and reach a definitive conclusion.
With hip-hop celebrating its 50-year anniversary, we thought this was the perfect time to re-air all six episodes of Backspin throughout the entirety of September. In the meantime, the Uniquely Milwaukee team will be hard at work getting ready for October, when our narrative will take a different trajectory.
Instead of delving into the birth of a musical movement, we’ll shift our focus to embark on a poignant journey into the undeniable complexity of an essential subject: death. All month long, we’ll explore different facets of the topic, finding light in what’s traditionally viewed as a dark subject.
Make sure you’re subscribed to Uniquely Milwaukee so you don’t miss a single episode, and enjoy this look back at the city’s hip-hop history.
