Radio Basim celebrated the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop with a live cypher on Behind the Groove. Dayton’s finest MCs and DJs were in attendance, including DJ Ike B, Jason “3J” Jordan, MC Justun Money Mula, MC Picket Fence, King Tun, Truth Garrett, Guy “Tronee Treat” Banks, Ladi Bounce, MC Bahiy Shabazz, Philly Phil, Brett Skywalker, MC Losiano, and King Issa Ali. While the MCs took turns testing their freestyle skills over Radio Basim’s beats, venerable members of Dayton’s hip hop community shared memories of building the city’s Hip Hop scene.
As the show began and guests settled in, Basim spoke with DJ Ike B and Jason “3J” Jordan, host of Tables of Content on WYSO, about the history of Hip Hop. This year marks the 50th anniversary of a 1973 Bronx party at which DJ Kool Herc introduced a new style of music, using two turntables to repeat the percussion breakdown of a record over and over. These repeated breakbeats became the backdrops for MCs to show off their rhyming abilities. However, as 3J argued, “Hip Hop is older than that. Way older.” Ike B and Basim reminisced about working in radio in the 1990s, when Hip Hop was finding a mainstream audience. Christopher Joseph spoke about hosting the first Hip Hop show on WYSO, which polarized listeners.
For the rest of the show, nearly a dozen MCs took turns freestyling over instrumentals in a classic freestyle cypher. A range of styles were represented, from the theatrical, often humorous delivery of Picket Fence, to the smooth, streetwise bars of King Tun and the lyrical rhymes of Tronee Threat. In addition, the band The Commandos performed live at the end of the show.
