Birth of a Culture

Over fifty years ago Joseph Saddler, a cool, nerdy, self-proclaimed kid scientist from the Bronx decided to create a new sound in American music. He grew up to become Grandmaster Flash and with the help of other DJs in his neighborhood, specifically Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Kool Herc they created what would be the musical backbone on which hip hop was born. The impact of their creation is one of the greatest stories in contemporary American history. Birth of a Culture is to hip hop what Eyes On The Prize was to the Civil Rights Movement. It tells the chronological and comprehensive origin and extended story of the last great creative contribution. When I first met Grandmaster Flash he said something to me that stuck and sums up so much of his accomplishments and music history. "This thing that I did with duplicate copies of a record became the music bed for human beings to speak on. Today they call it rap and I am the inventor."This book is for readers of Hip-Hop (And Other Things) by Shay Serrano, Rick Rubin's The Creative Way, and Dilla Time. Birth of a Culture is cowritten by the widely respected journalist Scoop Jackson.