I've mashed up a group of songs for you all this week that will help put you in touch with the sounds and rhythms that shaped the ears and the minds of Hip Hop's first dancers, artists, stylists, rappers, and poets. These sounds played from the homes of many American citizens, but for those living in the decaying neighborhoods of the nation's major cities, this music was the stuff of life, death, joy and pain. In short...babies were made to this music (intentionally and otherwise), block parties jammed into the night with these on replay, and basement/house/rent parties turned into impromptu sleepovers while these records (or cuts as they were commonly called) played in the background. Listen intently, each song I've chosen will come back to us in bits and pieces over the next ten weeks. They are not in a precise chronological order, but they are arranged according to musical trends and patterns of that moment. Enjoy.
