Backspin: Milwaukee's First Hip-Hop Song

Backspin: Milwaukee's First Hip-Hop Song

Who made Milwaukee's first hip-hop song? We find the answer by interviewing national and local artists, including DMC and Speech, who witnessed the birth of the city's hop-hop scene firsthand.

Episodes

July 15, 2019 27 mins
A fertile music culture in Milwaukee lays the groundwork for a new art form. In the early '80s there is an opportunity to make Milwaukee into the next Motown -- it just needs one charismatic entrepreneur to take advantage of it.
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Controversy swirls around Milwaukee's first hip-hop song. A group of MCs, DJs and musicians who were there weigh in on the scene, the time, and the true beginning of hip-hop in Milwaukee.
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July 15, 2019 28 mins
The leader of one of hip-hop's greatest groups, Arrested Development's Speech talks about the impact that Milwaukee had on him, and the impact he had on the city and the world.
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Justin and Tyrone settle the debate. We hear Milwaukee's first hip-hop song in full and put an end to this journey for Milwaukee's first hip-hop song.
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July 15, 2019 25 mins
A businessman with a business plan finds a group of energetic local kids who model themselves on James Brown and convinces them to record what might be Milwaukee's first hip-hop song.
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July 15, 2019 29 mins
We begin the search for Milwaukee's first hip-hop song. But first we have to understand the origins of hip-hop before it got to Milwaukee, and the fertile ground for the genre that Milwaukee provided in the early '80s.
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Who made Milwaukee's first hip hop song? Turns out this question is a tough one to Google. So, we're finding the answer.

88Nine DJ Tyrone Miller and Music Director Justin Barney journey back to the early 1980s in our new podcast -- Backspin: The Search for Milwaukee's First Hip-Hop Song. In the six-part series, the guys interview national and local artists, including DMC and Speech, plus an ensemble of local musicia...
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