The Secret Black Book of Breakbeats: The Original Breakbeats That Made Hip Hop Famous

By Big Daddy Ozone

This book is a reference guide for Breakbeat DJs and Record Collectors. In this book you will find, song after song with the greatest of breakbeats in them. Some famous, some forgotten, some unheard. These are the songs that the most successful producers in the music industry rely on and DJs dream of. The original songs that made Hip Hop Culture before the first rap was ever put on record. I have been a Disc Jockey since 1984 and I am Hip Hop. This book is my contribution to the Hip Hop Community and to give back what I have learned through the years as a Hip Hop Disc Jockey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Big Daddy Ozone
• Release date: Jan 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463868669

Book preview

166

The secret black book of

BREAKBEATS

The Original Breakbeats That Made Hip Hop Famous

A Reference Guide

For Breakbeat DJs

& Record Collectors

BIGDADDYOZONE

[e-mail]

Contents

The Secret Black Book of BreakBeats

In the Beginning There were Disc Jockeys and BreakBeats

What is a BreakBeat?

This Book Comes With a Warning:

The Breaks

Power of Music

My Two Cents Worth of Advice

A Lot of New DJs Coming Out Now Are:

Assessment of Culture

Always Plan for that Bigger Show

On The Wheels of Steel 172

My Personal Favorites Are:

Watch & Learn:

Further Research:

The secret black book of

breakbeats

(I understand that a lot of DJ’s are computerized. However, I am writing this as if all still use vinyl records.)

First and foremost, I would like to say that this book is for the hip hop DJs & Record Collectors. This is a Blueprint I am providing to the students of Hip Hop. This is not a book to be judged, questioned and researched by the Hip Hop police.My name is Big Daddy Ozone, I have been a Hip Hop Disc Jockey since 1984. This book is based off of my experience as a DJ and the music that has worked for me. With that in mind, let’s get to it. If you bought this book that only means that you already have a good idea of what breakbeats are. Believe it or not, DJs (myself included) have kept a lot of these songs well hidden from the public. With a DJ in the mix, you may recognize one or two tunes from a rap song sample. But, when you hear the music from the original song, with nothing but breakbeats followed by cutting and scratching, you can almost bet money that you have no clue to what you are really listening, let alone the name of most of the songs. All you most likely hear is that funky drumbeat. You can walk up to the DJ booth all you want. All you see is a covered record label. If you are lucky, maybe the DJ will tell you who sings the song or maybe even the name of the song, but never both. The DJ never gives you enough information to find the song again. If you are like me, you spend a lifetime looking for that one song that you heard over 20 years ago at some random party.

In The Beginning There Were

Disc Jockeys and Breakbeats

In the 1970s, an underground urban movement known as hip hop began to develop in the Bronx, New York City. It focused on DJing music from all cultures and genres. DJs also used to talk on the microphone as well. This part of the job was given to one or two eager party goers who knew how to talk in rhymes. Before long, there were contests to see who could rhyme the best; this was given the name emceeing. Emcees would rhyme over breakbeats, at the house parties and neighborhood block party events, held outdoors. The emcee would introduce the DJ and try to pump up the audience. The emcee spoke between the DJ's songs, urging everyone to get up and dance. Emcees would also use their best energetic language and enthusiasm to rev up the crowd. Eventually, this introducing role developed into longer sessions of spoken, rhythmic wordplay, and rhyming, which became rapping. None of this could have taken place without the Disk Jockey and the breakbeats taken off of old records. The knowledge of the music, the DJs musical weapons, have been hidden or lost for over 50 years. DJs have been hiding the music since the beginning. That day is over; it is time to put the needle on the record, so to speak.

What is a Breakbeat?

Specifically, a breakbeat is a broad style of electronic or dance-oriented music which utilizes breaks, often mixed by a DJ or sampled from earlier recordings in funk, jazz and R&B, for the main rhythm. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, hardcore, UK garage (including 2-step, breakstep and dubstep), and even pop and rock. Traditional Breakbeats are just drum beats. A breakbeat can be whatever you make it, like a phrase, melody, bass line or group of sounds

Wikipedia

On August 11, 1973, DJ Kool Herc was a disc jockey and emcee at a party in the recreation room at Sedgwick Avenue. DJ Kool Herc extended an instrumental beat (by breaking or scratching on the record) to let people dance longer. Break dancing and rapping began during the extended break. This helped lay the foundation for a cultural revolution.

History Detectives

Beginning in 1973 and continuing through the late 1970s and early 1980s, hip hop turntablists, such as DJ Kool Herc began using several funk breaks in a row, using irregular drum patterns from songs such as James Brown's Funky Drummer and The Winstons' Amen Brother, to form the rhythmic base for hip hop songs. DJ Kool Herc's breakbeat style involved playing the same record on two turntables and playing the break repeatedly, alternating between the two records. He would mark the points on the record where the break began and ended with a crayon, so that he could easily replay the break by spinning the record and not touching the tone arm. This style was copied and improved upon by early hip hop DJs Afrika Bambaataa and Grand Wizard Theodore. This style was extremely popular in clubs and dancehalls because the extended breakbeat provided breakers with more opportunities to showcase their skills. In the 1970s, hip-hop was all about the break. Then, in the 1980s, the evolution of technology began to make sampling breaks easier and more affordable for DJs and producers, which helped nurture the commercialization of hip-hop. Through crude techniques such as pausing tapes and then recording the break, by the 1980s, technology allowed anybody with a tape recorder to find the break beat.

This book comes with a warning:

Be very aware that Breakbeat DJs work the hardest. Let’s take a look; first you must decide if you are a mix & blend DJ or a scratch DJ. Then you become a hobbyist. If you want to make money your options are, a party DJ, wedding DJ, club DJ, radio DJ, battle DJ, the producer DJ - so on and so on. All DJs have a specific job with their titles. A lot of DJ’s can do more than one of these different programs. With these types of disc jockeys, skills can cross over and serve them well. The same is to be said about a Breakbeat DJ. However, when it comes to breakbeats, your skill level really has to