Living to Make Beats

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Being successful, truly successful, at anything requires commitment, determination and, perhaps most importantly, passion. Feeling passion fills a person with a sense of purpose and urgency. Whatever he sets his mind to can be, must be, accomplished because it is what he lives for.

This is particularly true for those brilliant artists that lay down the tracks that create the rhythm for this culture. Without the DJ's that spin the sounds of Hip Hop music, the culture would not exist. Some of these artists are more prevalent, they have truly written their name across the culture and left their legacy in the beats of all those that follow behind them.

In Jamaica in the early 1960s a DJ was the "master" of the music he was playing. He had control over it and could manipulate it into what he wanted. This assertion continues as a cornerstone of the Hip Hop culture today. From this island filled with music and dancing came a man named Clive Campbell.

Immigrating to South Bronx, he brought with him his talent for spurring on an audience. He became DJ Kool Herc, the father of the Hip Hop culture, and created the phrase "Bboy" to refer to the dancers that used the repeated musical breaks in his tracks to show off their dance skills.

In the 1970s, the street culture born in the streets and ghettos of America was growing bigger and stronger but it did not have a name. The music, dance, clothing, art and overall lifestyle of the movement was distinct and deep but those who found a home in it didn't know what to call it.

Then emerged another DJ who changed the history of a movement, DJ Afrika Bambaataa [http://www.beatmakers.info/more/tomakebeats.php] made huge strides in spreading the culture he so adored. Responsible for taking the street gang the Black Spades and adding them to the music and dance-oriented Zulu Nation, he also began the careers of many notable names in the industry.

By using early computer sounds and drumming effects, Bam began a subgenre called "Electro Funk" which influenced the development of other subgenres as well as the overall Hip Hop genre. Afrika Bambaataa credited for taking the already developed but as of yet unnamed culture and naming it "Hip Hop."

The passion of these DJ's sometimes bubbled over into battles to claim supremacy. Though DJ Kool Herc spoke of early versions of such battles when he was still in Jamaica, the true battles really began in 1976 when the booming population of DJ's caused opposing DJ's to engage in spirited comparisons of their sound systems.

Generally, a DJ's skill and popularity could be determined by which the crowd chose to congregate near but the sheer volume of their system also came into play when determining who won the battle.

Today the history-steeped tradition of the Hip Hop DJ lives on. With the growth of the industry and the availability of tools such as DUBturbo, more young ones come to the culture everyday that will find the craving to make beats [http://www.beatmakers.info/more/tomakebeats.php] and add to the ever-growing Hip Hop nation.
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