The event is being held to commemorate the 50th birthday of hip-hop as a love letter for the genre and all those who have made it popular. The concert also follows other recent events in the Bronx recognizing the upcoming anniversary and the borough’s role as its birthplace. Last month, Lehman Center for the Performing Arts celebrated the anniversary with a “Hip Hop Fever” concert and KRS-One announced, at a late April press conference, a public call for creatives to help design a logo to celibate the upcoming golden anniversary.
It was Clive Campbell aka DJ Kool Herc, on Aug. 11, 1973, who changed music and the Bronx’s association with hip-hop, forever.
It was at a “back to school event” at the now-iconic 1520 Sedgwick Ave. apartment building where, through the use of a sound system, Herc began to invent the technique of breaks, or breakbeats, which led to it being popularized by other artists like Afrika Bambaataa and Bronx crew Universal Zulu Nation and Grand Wizzard Theodore.
To pay homage, the Hip Hop 50 Live concert will include a Pillar of Hip Hop Set, featuring Kool Herc and Cindy Campbell, GrandMaster Caz, Kurtis Blow, Melle Mel, Roxanne Shante, Scorpio and the Sugarhill Gang.
Hip Hop 50 Live at Yankee Stadium is co-produced by Mass Appeal, Live Nation, and the New York Yankees
