upfront
Xenith
Feature Hip-hop at 50: the genre’s history in Wales
headlined by the legendary Grandmaster Flash later this month, so we asked Kaptin Barrett, Hip-hop Coordinator at Museum Wales, to mark the occasion by journeying through hip-hop history on our
Once the new kid on the musical block, hip-hop is now hitting half a century since its origins in the Bronx, New York. To celebrate, Wrexham’s FOCUS will host a showcase of homegrown talent
side of the Atlantic, from breakdancing crews to graffiti artists, rap pioneers to the thriving contem- porary scene.
Fri 11 Aug 2023 marks 50 years since Jamai- can DJ Kool Herc and his sister Cindy Camp- bell put on their infamous Back To School Jam at their apartment block in the Bronx, New York. For many, this party was where hip-hop was born.
Other DJs in the United States, including Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa, helped the music to spread and created the en- vironment for the other elements of the culture to grow: namely rapping, graffiti and breakin’, or breakdancing as it became known here in the UK, when it hit our shores like a tidal wave in the early 1980s. That was really the first proper wave of hip-hop here in Wales.
Although early records by the likes of Sugar- hill Gang and Grandmaster Flash’s group the Furious Five would have found their way into our clubs, and even into the charts from 1979, the full-colour explosion of music, art, dance and fashion came at the very end of 1982 with the video to Malcolm McLaren’s postpunk/ hip-hop/square dance mashup, Buffalo Gals. Although this was the flashpoint for many, it was 1984 – with the release of films such as Breakdance and Beat Street, seminal graffiti book Subway Art and the first electro compila- tions – that hip-hop truly made its mark across the whole of Wales.
Graffiti could already be found around areas like St Mellons and Trowbridge in Cardiff, or Manselton and Penlan in Swansea, but it start- ed to spread further, especially around the train tracks – and the trains themselves. Breakdance crews were now firmly established in New- port, Cwmbran, Cardiff, Barry and Port Talbot, with ‘battles’ in youth clubs, in holiday camps and in the streets, and Maskells skate rink in
20 Grandmaster Flash
MC Eric, Dike and 4Dee amongst others, as well as graffiti writers such as Coma One and Fina Outline. Then there was LSD Productions in Cwmbran, Mortal Danger in Swansea and 2Sharp in the Valleys.
The first Welsh hip-hop releases came from north Wales however, and all in Welsh too. First up was the 1986 track Dyddiau Braf (Rap Cymraeg) by postpunk duo Llwybr Llaethog, followed closely by a cassette release from H3 (aka Dylan Hughes, later the drummer for both Y Cyrff and Anhrefn) and a flexidisc from A5, the first release from experimental electronic label R-Bennig.
Newport became the place to be if you wanted to dance and hear the latest hip-hop and elec- tro sounds on a Saturday, courtesy of Robbie Howells.
The rappers would come a little later in the decade, as breakin’ started to fade and the next wave of hip-hop arrived with acts such as Run DMC, LL Cool J and Roxanne Shante. Groups and crews sprung up in Wales: Hardrock Con- cept in Cardiff included DJ Jaffa with rappers
The first south Wales releases from the late 80s showed the influence of the Jamaican sound system culture in the region. Mixing up reggae and hip-hop, ex Hardrock Concept members DJ Jaffa and MC Eric moved to London and, with their group Just The Duce, signed a ma- jor label deal with Jive. In Newport a young Benji Webbe – later the vocalist of Dub War and Skindred – recorded a track with superpro- ducer Jamie Winchester under the name Time To Panic. Winchester was also one of the turn- tablists to be found at the Welsh heats of the DMC DJ Championships, alongside the likes of Buzz, DJ Demo and DJ Excel: the latter, now known as BadMeaningGood, went on to become a UK DMC finalist numerous times, won the Vestax Championships, and is respon- sible for the birth of legendary turntablist tech- nique the ‘crab scratch’.
As we entered the 1990s, many hip-hop fol- lowers jumped ship for the rave and dance scenes that were taking hold in the UK. MC Eric found fame with Technotronic, topping the chart and touring with Madonna along the
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
