When the construction started, all the houses near the Expressway plummeted in value because people did not want to live near the freeway.  This meant that if they could leave, they did - and the only people that would live there were the ones that could not afford to live anywhere else.  The Cross Bronx Expressway also essentially isolated the South Bronx from the rest of the city.  The area  deteriorated into a ghetto with rampant poverty and crime, and it was not long before it looked like a warzone.  Teenagers faught against each other, gangs were formed, and the people of South Bronx were in a state of misery and despair.

It is hard to imagine that in the midst of this kind of atmosphere hip hop was born, but that is exactly what happened. On August 11, 1973, Jamaican born Clive Campbell (aka Kool Herc) DJed for his sister Cindy's back-to-school party in the recreation center at 1520 Sedgwick. After spending months perfecting a new technique involving "playing the frantic grooves at the beginning or in the middle of the song" with two turntables, a mixer, and two copies of the same record, Kool Herc unveiled the technique at his sister's party.  During the party Kool Herc also used the Jamaican tradition of impromptu toasting, which is boastful poetry and speech over music.  This 'toasting' eventually became emceeing (MCing or rapping) - the rhythmic spoken delivery of rhymes and wordplay delivered over a beat or without accompaniment - and the beginnings of a new culture was born.

The Hip Hop cultural movement is characterized by four distinct foundational elements, all of which represent the different manifestations of the culture: DJing, MCing, B-Boying and Graffiti Art.  To learn more about each, click on the buttons below.