Breaks in the Air: The Birth of Rap Radio in New York City

by John Klaess

Overview

In Breaks in the Air John Klaess tells the story of rap’s emergence on New York City’s airwaves by examining how artists and broadcasters adapted hip hop’s performance culture to radio. Initially, artists and DJs brought their live practice to radio by buying time on low-bandwidth community stations and building new communities around their shows. Later, stations owned by New York’s African American elite, such as WBLS, reluctantly began airing rap even as they pursued a sound rooted in respectability, urban sophistication, and polish. At the same time, large commercial stations like WRKS programmed rap once it became clear that the music attracted a demographic that was valuable to advertisers. Moving between intimate portraits of single radio shows and broader examinations of the legal, financial, cultural, and political forces that indelibly shaped the sound of rap radio, Klaess shows how early rap radio provides a lens through which to better understand the development of rap music as well as the intertwined histories of sounds, institutions, communities, and legal formations that converged in the post-Civil Rights era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478018872
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	09/27/2022
Pages:	234
Sales rank:	663,310
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.49(d)

About the Author

John Klaess is an independent scholar based in Boston.

Table of Contents

Preface  ix
Acknowledgments  xiii
Introduction. Breaks in the Air  1
1. Deregulating Radio  19
2. Sounding Black Progress in the Post-Civil Rights Era  32
3. Commercializing Rap with Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack  63
4. Programming the Street at WRKS  88
5. Broadcasting the Zulu Nation  116
6. Listening to the Labor of The Awesome 2 Show  139
Epilogue  162
Notes  175
Bibliography  193
Index  215

What People are Saying About This

Black Ephemera: The Crisis and Challenge of the Musical Archive - Mark Anthony Neal

“As a social history of Black radio in New York City, Breaks in the Air foregrounds a larger conversation about the sounds of Blackness on commercial radio in the period. Brilliant in its detail, it makes an important contribution to the studies of hip hop culture, race and broadcast media, and the cultural history of New York City in the 1980s.”

Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm - Dan Charnas

"In The Big Payback, I endeavored to show how hip-hop reshaped radio. In Breaks in the Air, John Klaess meticulously flips the script, showing how radio in fact reshaped hip-hop in the 1980s, engendering a novel way of composing and consuming music.”

Editorial Reviews

Among the plethora of books, articles, podcasts, exhibits, and events that came out around the 50th anniversary of Hip-hop culture, Breaks in the Air stands out as a uniquely valuable work.

Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television - Simon-Olivier Gagnon

"A book that tells the story of rap on New York City’s airwaves, Breaks in the Air is mandatory reading for anyone with an interest in hip hop history and elements of that history that aren’t readily considered, including figures responsible for its early dissemination. As well as providing a meticulous account of the first stations to air rap music, Klaess’ book offers a unique insight into the sociopolitical power of broadcast media and how alongside the growing popularity of hip hop, radio provided a valuable new avenue for Black expression."

The Quietus - Arusa Qureshi

"This is a book about radio as a medium, not the music that flows through it, and it deserves praise for shining a light on the people behind the tapes who have been underappreciated by more conventional histories."

The Wire - Peter Shapiro

"Breaks in the Air has a lot to offer anyone interested in hip-hop's rise, as well as anyone fascinated with the larger stories of Black music and American radio."--Michaelangelo Matos "Beat Connection" (12/8/2022 12:00:00 AM)

"A book that tells the story of rap on New York City's airwaves, Breaks in the Air is mandatory reading for anyone with an interest in hip hop history and elements of that history that aren't readily considered, including figures responsible for its early dissemination. As well as providing a meticulous account of the first stations to air rap music, Klaess' book offers a unique insight into the sociopolitical power of broadcast media and how alongside the growing popularity of hip hop, radio provided a valuable new avenue for Black expression."--Arusa Qureshi "The Quietus" (11/12/2022 12:00:00 AM)

"This is a book about radio as a medium, not the music that flows through it, and it deserves praise for shining a light on the people behind the tapes who have been underappreciated by more conventional histories."--Peter Shapiro "The Wire" (10/1/2022 12:00:00 AM)

"Not to be missed, musicologist Klaess has written a fascinating chronicle of hip-hop radio stations. . . . Klaess's book is a must-read for all those interested in tracing hip-hop's sociopolitical/racial chord back to its airwaves origins."--Alessandro Cimino "Library Journal" (8/1/2022 12:00:00 AM)

From the Publisher

08/01/2022

Not to be missed, musicologist Klaess has written a fascinating chronicle of hip-hop radio stations and their assurgency as a medium for kickstarting a social and racial debate over the frequencies of incipient rap radio stations. Following the trail of the ambivalent commentary often associated with rap music, Klaess walks readers through the different eras of Black music and its role in bridging the gap of divisiveness, as well as the musical and geographical antagonism within different neighborhoods. The iconic tapes of rap shows often mentioned by Klaess are therefore idealized and immortalized as nostalgic evidence of a time when love for music helped bring communities together, using hip-hop and shout-outs as a way to unite and make way for the "Golden Era" of rap stations. The trajectory of rap music and radio broadcasting was never as fascinating and thoroughly dissected as it is here. VERDICT Klaess's book is a must-read for all those interested in tracing hip-hop's sociopolitical/racial chord back to its airwaves origins.—Alessandro Cimino

Library Journal

"Breaks in the Air has a lot to offer anyone interested in hip-hop’s rise, as well as anyone fascinated with the larger stories of Black music and American radio."

Beat Connection - Michaelangelo Matos