Born in the Bronx

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Hip hop first became a part of the mainstream music industry in the early 1980s, but the true origins of one of the most powerful pop-cultural influences of the twentieth century are in the spontaneous and progressive musical culture that grew out of tough Bronx neighborhoods of the 1970s. Writer and curator Johan Kugelberg has pulled together the scattered remains of a movement that never had its eye on posterity. The book includes a foreword by legendary DJ and Bronx activist Afrika Bambaataa, a hip hop timeline by best-selling author Jeff Chang, the improvisational flyer artwork of Buddy Esquire, Polaroid photographs buried for decades in basements across the Bronx, and personal contributions from influential figures such as Grandmaster Cas, LA Sunshine, JDL, Mare 139, and Grandwizzard Theodore. Above all, through the work of pioneering photographer Joe Conzo - the man the New York Times calls "the chronicler who took hip hop's baby pictures" - Born in the Bronx presents a truly unique introduction to an explosive and experimental period in music history.