Streaming 24/7 · All Star Classics
Classic
Hip Hop
never left
The station, the stories and the artifacts. Live golden era radio, long-form HIPHOPHISTORY with the people who built it, rare essential clips and merch straight from the crates.
On air now
Hip Hop History
View all
DJ / founding father
DJ Kool Herc
Clive Campbell moved from Kingston to the Bronx as a kid and carried the sound-system culture of Jamaica with him: big speakers, a mic, and a crowd. On August 11, 1973 he and his sister Cindy threw a back-to-school party in the rec room at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. That night is the one historians point to as the birth of hip hop.
DJ / turntable technician
Grandmaster Flash
If Herc had the idea, Flash built the machine. Trained in electronics and obsessed with his father's record collection, he engineered the techniques that turned two turntables into an instrument: the quick mix theory, the clock theory of marking a record with a crayon, backspinning, punch phrasing and the cross-fader cue system.
DJ / inventor of the scratch
Grand Wizzard Theodore
Theodore was a kid practicing too loud in his bedroom when his mother banged on the door. He held the record still under the needle to hear her — and heard a rhythm in the friction. That accident became the scratch, hip hop's signature sound.
Featured Clips
View allNo clips yet — embed your first YouTube clip from the admin panel.