Calling all hip hop heads: celebrate 50 years since Kool Herc's first jam with three incredible, rarely-screened docs.
August 11th, 1973. An 18 year old Clive Campbell, AKA Kool Herc, has been roped in to DJ a back-to-school jam for his sister, Cindy. The party is at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, an address in the Bronx that will go down in history as the birthplace of hip hop. Herc would later recall observing how that night, "When I extended the break, people were ecstatic". He would be the earliest major figure to emerge from the mid-70's Bronx and is widely credited as the originator of the genre. The next morning he was famous across the Bronx. Half a decade later we celebrate a global cultural phenomenon. It's bigger than hip hop.
Can we kick it? Yes we can. Dust off your Kangol hat, pop on your Adidas and B-boy it on down to the Lexi. We’ll meet you there.
Curated by Harbs Djuma.
Co-produced with Black History Studies: post-show audience discussions with Charmaine Simpson, Founder of Black History Studies.
Event supported by Film Hub London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery. www.filmlondon.org.uk/filmhub
