Let's go way back when it all began back in NYC; Yes, East Coast as in Uptown!

Keep on..........to the break of dawn!

run DMC YEAH WATS UP MAN!!! LOL

Uptown FYI: Audubon Ballroom @ 166 St. And St. Nick's.

Grandmaster Flash and the Five perform live at the Audubom Ballroom: One of Hip Hop's famous venues in New York during the early years of Hip Hop. On the mic: Kid Creole

'Pa que afinquen.....
What's the word?
r..a..p..
No me digan mas....

Great stuff Arsenio. I'm young so I only go back to days of Rakim & KRS but cool to check this all out. Don't know when you last visited the Heights but here is what is left of the Audubon Ballroom today ... medical & research facilities, definitely not a music venue anymore. Houses a statue of Malcolm X:

HateroPardo:

I was previously deep into music from birth. Now, I'm not anylonger.

But, those were the golden years of rap, before it went pop!

That was the start of the art form that has since then been commercialized, gone corporate, sold out to foreign interests, crossed over and become pop. Like that other rap song "pop goes the weasel".




JZ, Puffy, 50, etc....Mainstream-suburbia hip-hop or old dirty south garbage, Master P and the kids...

Yeah, that Broadway entrance until the late seventies was the front door to the San Juan Theater;
The Audubon Ballroom entrance was on 166 St. up a long stairway with a landing. That whole upstairs was the Ballroom. My partner Frankie worked there from 1974-1975, as a bartender.
I go to NYC at least every two years since I have grown children that live in the area. My Dad used to live at 164 St. and Ft. Washington until 1996....Just two blocks away; I'd visit him and go by the famous bldg. quite often back then...
Way Back they had Soul Music dances, Latin Music dances, New Year's Eve Balls,Many a Boxing match (some who trained at Highbridge, & 163 St. gym), and. yes also NOI Muslim gatherings....Malcom's Assassination.





Now let's take it way back to the Urban Guerrillas, the poets:



It's a rap...

More Rap (Poetry):



Flash back---
Felipe Luciano (Ex- Young Lord Party) w Eddie Palmierei and Co. Central Park Bandshell '72.




Felipe Luciano w His Famous Poetry originally recorded at Sing-Sing:
Jibaro my "Pretty Nigga"

Def Poetry, Season 2, Episode 5 (S02 E05)
Original Air Date: 19 July 2002



Old-School w Juan Llibre:

Arsenio could you share some history of the United Palace Theatre on 175 & Broadway? Was this also a major rap or Latin venue back then?