Rap Pioneers Then & Now

The other week Tone-Loc was hospitalized in Florida after passing out during a concert. He's 43 now, and his collapse begs two questions: can dudes rap into their forties, and... people go to hip-hop shows in Florida?

Actually, the whole hip-hop generation is approaching middle-age. I'm sure we could argue all day long about the first hip-hop moment, the first hip-hop single, or the moment when hip-hop's spark was truly ignited. I'm going to put a stake in the sand on that last one and call it as August 11, 1973. That's the night Bronx DJ Kool Herc (short for "Hercules" - a childhood nickname) played the first breakbeat at the 1520 Sedgwick Avenue project housing recreation room. And with this break the hip-hop blueprint was drawn.

Rap without a breakbeat is like rock with out an amp. That "five-minute loop of fury" gave rappers the foundation to build their rhymes. Thirty-six years later, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue is now officially the "birthplace of hip-hop" (thanks to Herc's lobbying) and a host of old-school rappers are now approaching AARP age. While Eminem, Method Man & Redman, and Cam'ron all suck up the hip-hop oxygen this summer, let's pay our respects to the pioneers who hold them up. Know your history to create your own.

source: new.music.yahoo.com