Before the genre was called 'hip-hop,' MC Sha-Rock changed the game.
From MC Sha-Rock to Cardi B, the women of hip-hop have proven to be game changers in the music industry.The roots of hip-hop can be traced back to the night of Aug. 11, 1973, when DJ Kool Herc and his sister Cindy Campbell hosted a block party in the Bronx, New York, -- the first of many jams that birthed the first sounds and the earliest pioneers of hip-hop culture.
Property values plummeted so steeply that landlords began burning down their own buildings to collect the insurance money and many residents were killed in the fires.MC Sha-Rock, second from left, is pictured with her family on Coney Island, New York in 1974. At the time, youth in the Bronx found solace in music and dancing. And over the next couple of years, Green attended many of the parties thrown by DJ Kool Herc, where she got her start in hip-hop as a"B-girl" -- the word used to describe what would become known in the 1980s as breakdancers.
"She said, 'Listen, this what you do: you rhyme it, you recite, and your cadence will make people be able to feel it when you say it. You got to make sure when you say it they feel that they're a part of that rhyme.'"At the time, cassettes tapes and flyers were a form of communication. This is how music was shared and how people found out where the next party was going to be.
"I practiced the rhyme, I rehearsed the rhyme, I said the rhyme all over again, so by the time I got to that audition, I was comfortable with the rhyme and my deliverance would beat out anybody," she said.In this July 11, 2016 file photo MC Sha-Rock is seen at David Geffen Hall in New York City. The rockstar invited the group to perform on"SNL" on Feb. 14, 1981, where she introduced them to America as some of"the best street rappers in the country."their hit song"That's the Joint," becoming the first hip-hop group ever to appear on national television.Funky 4 + 1 More during the musical performance, Feb. 14, 1981, on Saturday Night Live.