Phoenix Radio’s Natalie Williams on 50 Years of Hip-Hop
Hip-hop began 50 years ago in The Bronx. While it has evolved into a mainstream, commercially successful genre in those five decades, its roots and its heart are with indy performers who create art from available pre-existing media blended and personalized into original expressions. There are “Five Pillars of Hip-Hop,” these include MCing (or rapping), break dancing, graffiti art, knowledge of self and the movement.
The first “pillar,” however, is DJ’ing. DJs or “disc jockeys” are the people who play, blend, and curate recorded music for live audiences or on radio stations like Utica’s hip-hop radio station, 95.5 FM “The Heat.”
Over the next week, I will bring you recorded interviews with 95.5 FM’s “Heat Squad,” who talk about the art form, how it evolved, and its cultural impact globally and locally.
Today, I am talking to DJ Natalie Williams. In our interview, she explains how hip-hop originated with DJs mixing music from vinyl records on two phonograph turntables. She also talks about how phonographs were used for recordings made in various genres, including spoken word, speeches, and comedy.
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