SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

This 12 months, NPR, together with member stations, has been marking the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. A type of stations, KEXP in Seattle, has been celebrating with a weekly podcast, 50 Years Of Hip-Hop. In every episode, host Larry Mizell Jr. and his crew spotlight a completely different 12 months of the music’s historical past. They’ve jumped across the timeline from 1973 to in the present day, choosing sure songs or moments from annually, exploring hip-hop’s origins and its continued evolution.

In this episode chronicling 1977, KEXP contributor Dusty Henry takes a have a look at the groundbreaking innovation by 12-year-old Theodore Livingston, aka Grand Wizzard Theodore. The younger DJ fairly actually stumbled upon a method that may change hip-hop forever – scratching.

DUSTY HENRY, BYLINE: Like most 12-year-olds, Livingston cherished enjoying information loud in his bed room. And like most mother and father, some others scolded him from the opposite room to show it down. On one explicit day again in 1975, Theodore was enjoying the Unimaginable Bongo Band’s “Apache.” As he reached over to pause the record to listen to what his mother was saying…

(SOUNDBITE OF RECORD SCRATCHING)

HENRY: …Theodore accidently moved the record enjoying back-and-forth. The sound piqued his curiosity, so he did it once more…

(SOUNDBITE OF RECORD SCRATCHING)

HENRY: …And once more.

(SOUNDBITE OF RECORD SCRATCHING)

HENRY: Theodore spent days on finish experimenting with this new sound that he, fairly actually, stumbled upon, one thing we now know in the present day as scratching.

(SOUNDBITE OF INCREDIBLE BONGO BAND’S “APACHE”)

HENRY: So let’s return a little additional for simply a minute. We’re speaking in regards to the 1970s right here, the earliest days of hip-hop. Theodore was aware of what was occurring. His older brother, who glided by the title Imply Gene, was entrenched within the effervescent hip-hop phenomenon. Gene was additionally shut associates and a inventive companion with one other future legend of hip-hop, Grandmaster Flash.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THE MESSAGE”)

MELLE MEL: (Singing) A baby is born with no way of thinking, blind to the methods of mankind. God is smiling on you, however he is frowning too, as a result of solely God is aware of what you undergo.

HENRY: Gene and Flash picked up on Theodore’s pure DJ skills early on and took the pre-teen underneath their wings. Theodore joined his mentors to dig by way of crates stuffed with vinyl in downtown Manhattan. They’d spend their days looking for new information that they may play earlier than anybody else – The Rolling Stones…

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HONKY TONK WOMEN”)

THE ROLLING STONES: (Singing) It is the honky tonk girls.

HENRY: …Aerosmith…

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WALK THIS WAY”)

AEROSMITH: (Singing) Stroll this fashion. Stroll this fashion.

HENRY: …The Unimaginable Bongo Band, something with a danceable beat that they may get to first.

(SOUNDBITE OF INCREDIBLE BONGO BAND’S “APACHE”)

HENRY: At this level, Flash and different DJs have been famously performing in parks and deserted buildings, large block events with huge audio system, loud music and the earliest types of breakdancing. And our hero, Theodore, had a front-row seat. He, Imply Gene and their different brother, DJ Cordioo, fashioned their very own group, the L Brothers, and they started performing within the parks too.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Inaudible). Tomorrow, the L Brothers will probably be at Rock Metropolis on 159th St. and Prospect – $2 for everyone, 12:00.

HENRY: Throughout this time, Flash was making large improvements to DJing. Folks usually credit score Kool Herc for beginning hip-hop in 1973 by enjoying solely the danceable breaks in information to maintain the get together going. After perfecting Herc’s breakbeat method, Flash took it to the following degree. Here is Flash talking in a documentary about his first groundbreaking technique.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GRANDMASTER FLASH: I had provide you with a mixing method, which I referred to as the short combine concept, the place I used to be in a position to take two copies of the identical record on two completely different turntables and repeat the climactic a part of the record over and over and over and over and over once more.

HENRY: Flash additionally developed clock concept. That is his technique of figuring out a sure section of record he appreciated so he may punch in back-and-forth on his turntables to create a new, steady beat. Simply the very act of placing his fingers on the record was revolutionary, one thing that was thought-about fake pas amongst DJs. I would not suggest doing it along with your record assortment both until you are a skilled DJ, that’s.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GRAND WIZZARD THEODORE: Crossfaders did not go from left to proper…

HENRY: So when Theodore was sitting in his bed room and began shifting his information back-and-forth, he was unwittingly constructing on Flash’s method. Theodore spoke with Scorching 97 again in 2014 in regards to the second he found scratching.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GRAND WIZZARD THEODORE: …So when she startled me, each crossfaders went up within the air, which implies that I may hear each information on the similar time. So what I did was I did a child scratch, pulled the music down a little bit. She left the room, performed the following record, completed my cassette tape, and once I rewind it again to the half the place my mom got here within the room, I can hear myself child scratching. I used to be like, wow. I can incorporate that into all the opposite issues that I do as a DJ. So I practiced it one other couple of days and a couple of hours, completely different information. And that is when it turned the scratch. I used to be 12 years previous in 1975.

HENRY: You see, Flash’s fast combine and clock theories have been all about fluidity. Theodore’s new scratching method was tough and jagged. Rhythmically scratching on his information began to develop a new sound. In 1977, the 14-year-old Theodore debuted as Grand Wizzard Theodore and started performing his scratching method for the primary time on the Sparkle membership. His tune of alternative? “Apache” by the Unimaginable Bongo Band, the tune he first unintentionally scratched to when his mother informed him to show down the music. Here is a uncommon clip recorded on the cassette of Theodore scratching the following 12 months, in 1978, with L Brothers on the Bronx River Middle.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HENRY: As we’ll undoubtedly repeat all through this sequence, it is tough to attribute particular folks or particular dates and instances within the origins of hip-hop, or any style for that matter. Grand Wizzard Theodore actually may not be the primary individual to jostle a record back-and-forth on the needle, however he was the primary we all know of to acknowledge its potential. He continued his research underneath Grandmaster Flash, who took to the scratching method and arguably started to excellent it. You hear it throughout Flash’s seminal observe “The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Metal.”

(SOUNDBITE OF GRANDMASTER FLASH’S “THE ADVENTURES OF GRANDMASTER FLASH ON THE WHEELS OF STEEL”)

HENRY: Scratching continued to evolve over time underneath the fingertips of artists like DJ scratch, DJ Premier, DJ Jazzy Jeff and DJ Qbert, simply to call a few. Like most artwork varieties, the story of hip-hop offers us a few of the clearest examples of watching an thought be born and evolve. There is not any barrier for entry to begin innovating. A younger child being informed to show down his music by his mother sparked a revolution for a complete style and tradition. And it isn’t simply a freak incident both. Grand Wizzard Theodore’s persistence to comply with his music and chase down an thought changed the sport. Past simply hip-hop, it is inspiration to comply with your muse when it exhibits itself. You by no means know what it’d create subsequent.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HENRY: That was Dusty Henry digging into the story of Grand Wizzard Theodore and the invention of scratching for KEXP’s 50 Years Of Hip-Hop podcast. You’ll find your entire sequence on kexp.org, with episodes on all the things from Jay-Z and Nas to MF Doom to the story of an early feminine hip-hop pioneer, MC Lyte, who discovered followers amongst Chuck D, Sinead O’Connor and a U.S. president.

HENRY: She turned the primary feminine rapper to carry out on the White Home for President Barack Obama.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MC LYTE: Who would have thought that hip-hop would ever be heard on this room? Most positively, it didn’t begin in such a fancy place.

DETROW: Hear all of them at kexp.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

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