43 Years & A Day After Kool Herc’s Party That Birthed Hip Hop, Baz Luhrmann’s The Get Down Premiers

On a hot summer day on August 11, 1973, Kool Herc hosted a party at 1520 Sedgwick that went down in history as the birth of Hip Hop. 

Now, 43 years and a day later, Baz Luhrmann’s The Get Down on Netflix is finally out which chronicles the beginnings of this Bronx-born genre that took the world by storm. 

We haven’t seen the rest of the episodes but did watch the first at the premier 3 weeks ago at the Old Bronx Borough Courthouse hosted by the Universal Hip Hop Museum and Netflix. 

What we saw from that first episode gave us hope that after much controversy over the show and concerns we raised that they seem to have gotten it right. 

This authenticity to the feel of those days is thanks to graffiti legends Crash and Daze who served as consultants to the show along with photographer Joe Conzo Jr who was credited by David Gonzalez of the New York Times as, “the man who took Hip Hop’s baby pictures”. 

We’re looking forward to watching the first half of the season which was released today on Netflix and going through that emotional roller-coaster of nostalgia we felt from the first episode. 

Many would ask why would you want to relive the traumas of the burning years and the answer is simple: Through the smoke and fires, through the deaths and crime, beyond that visceral veil that clung to the South Bronx there was life. 

There was so much life happening in the most unlikely of places like a desert flower blossoming despite being surrounded by a barren and hostile environment. 

Let us know what you think about The Get Down.