Conclusion

The first section provides includes an assessment of what can be added to our understanding of how hip hop started. It points especially to areas for in which more data are needed. It also provides sketches of how one might use the theoretical framework developed in this work to study the evolution of hip hop beyond the 1970s. The second section concerns how the theoretical arguments in this book can go beyond the world of hip hop and be put to use in studies of the birth of similar entities, such as other musical forms (rock n’ roll or jazz), professions, academic disciplines, racial groups, and nations. The final sections of the chapter presents the substantive implications of this work. As opposed to the popular narrative that portrays life in the South Bronx during the 1970s as the quintessence of social and personal disorganization, the story of hip hop shows that, at least among youth, the South Bronx was a place of creative vibrancy with its own form of social order. It argues that, if we look closely, we shall see that other American ghettoes also exhibited (and continue to exhibit) such vivacity.

Crews and Outside Influences

Chapter 4 adds more empirical evidence about how new actors became part of the scene. More particularly, it explains how actors came together to form DJing and MCing crews, an important form of social organization in the nascent hip hop world. It shows that the number of members in each crew, the required skills and responsibilities of each member of the crew, the styles of their performance, the venues of shows, and attire all came to hold great significance for the internal logic of the emerging entity. Additionally, it examines external factors that shaped conventions. It investigates the significance of performance routines and fashion and the impact of the New York City blackout of 1977. Further, it discuss how the term “hip hop” itself became adopted as the name for the scene, something that, surprisingly, previous historians of hip hop have ignored.

Introduction

It focuses on a crucial span of time surprisingly under-examined in previous studies: 1975-79, a period after the rise of Kool DJ, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash and before The Sugar Hill Gang. This introductory chapter begins by pointing out three limitations in the literature on the history of hip hop: its present to past approach, its focus either on cultural influences or social-structural influences, and its mythicization of the founding fathers. The chapter shows how work on symbolic boundary formation can help to overcome these limitations

MCs Take the Stage

This chapter shows how MCs became the dominant participants in hip hop. In addition, the chapter argues that it is because of this important shift that The Sugar Hill Gang, a crew from New Jersey that did not have any symbolic capital prior to releasing their song “Rapper’s Delight,” became a household name. This final chapter also brings to a culmination an analysis that has been unfolding throughout the preceding chapters, namely, how hip hop developed cultural and social attributes. By demonstrating how it developed these attributes, it shows another aspect of the endurance of an emerging entity. On how it became cultural, it draws together examples of how it instilled in participants a real or imagined sense of distinction between themselves and the outside world; formed among them a sense of mutual connection and responsibility; and shaped how they expressed themselves (e.g., through gestures, postures, and language). In regard to how it became social, it shows how it shaped the behaviour of participants even in aspects of their lives not directly related to the entity or other participants therein (e.g., decisions regarding how to spend their time, how to lead their lives, or how to serve their community).

Race, Gender, and the Pursuit of Recognition

Chapter 5 concentrates on the role of race and gender in the pursuit of recognition. Details about the role and influence of women in the early years of hip hop have mostly been ignored in previous works, but this chapter shows that women were significant to the internal logic of the scene. Exploring the rise and fall of The Mercedes Ladies, the first all-female DJing and MCing crew, we see that the masculine orientation of the scene limited how much symbolic capital could be accrued because the most important social networks in the scene (e.g., those of party promoters, club owners, and security crews) were dominated by males. This chapter also explores the rise of Charlie Chase, a popular Puerto Rican DJ, to demonstrate how race mattered in the pursuit of symbolic capital. Even though all young people in the South Bronx neighborhoods, including non-blacks, were invited to the parties, not all could, without opposition, become famous performers. This was because the most desirable role in the scene, being a performer, was reserved for blacks, while non-blacks who attempted to cross this boundary faced some resistance.

Creating Conventions

If Part One of this book described the beginnings of a new entity, this second part describes how it coalesced. If the former showed how sites of difference developed and how proto-boundaries formed, the latter discusses how a certain set of relations and proto-boundaries became longer lasting. Chapter 3 argues that boundaries become more durable when an internal logic develops within them. It shows that some conventions were intentionally introduced from within the scene; some came from inside the scene but were the result of accidents; some came from outside but were intentionally incorporated; and some were imposed on the scene from changes in the surrounding context. The empirical details of these arguments about the making of hip hop include an exploration of how scratching was invented; how security crews became important; how MCing emerged as a vital part of South Bronx parties; how hustlers became part of the scene; and how DJs and MCs competed with one another for recognition in the South Bronx. Further, I show how, with the entrée of new actors, certain attributes of the emerging entity became standard while others died off.

South Bronx DJs vs. Other DJs

This chapter’s first section, introduces two new actors, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash, both of whom followed in the footsteps of Kool DJ Herc. It provides their biographical portraits and discuss how they became established DJs in the South Bronx. It present the different skill-sets they brought with them. It further discusses the importance, at least for Herc and Bambaataa, of graffiti writing. The chapter then takes the reader to Harlem, Brooklyn, and Queens to examine the DJing scene in these other locales. The stories included here, for the most part, have never been published, and thus have never been part of popular narratives about how hip hop emerged. Nevertheless, they are crucial because they illuminate the social worlds against which the South Bronx DJs defined themselves. The final portion of the chapter identifies the bases on which the South Bronx scene opposed itself to those of other parts of the city: (a) break-centered DJing versus song-centered DJing; (b) bigger, more established, and more lucrative venues versus smaller, less established, and less lucrative venues; (c) dancing with a partner versus competitive break dancing; (d) twenty-one-and-older audiences versus twenty-one-and-under audiences; and (e) formal attire, including suits and dresses, versus less formal attire, including jeans and sneakers.

Herc: The New Cool in the Bronx

Chapter 1 presents an overview of the historical context in which hip hop emerged. The first section describes the social and economic context of the South Bronx during the 1970s, drawing on scholarship from history and sociology, journalistic accounts, and historical documentaries. The second section provides story lines about the most popular social activities engaged in by youth at the time: graffiti-writing, DJing, and dancing. The final section provides an explanation of how, within a chaotic social environment, these somewhat divergent social activities were linked together to begin forming the new entity. It also explores the historical role of Kool DJ Herc. By focusing on Herc, it demonstrates how sociologists can refrain from portraying actors as heroic and self-motivated yet still acknowledge their pivotal role as historical figures.