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As you can probably tell, we here at SEEN love hip-hop and its culture. For our next classic video we are going with a video that was essentially England's first exposure to hip-hop culture. Malcolm McLaren is best known for managing and mentoring the Sex Pistols, giving them the punk style and attitude he brought back from New York and his exposure to the New York Dolls and Richard Hell & Tom Verlaine (who later formed Television). However, McLaren was also instrumental in bringing hip-hop culture to a more global audience.

In the 1984 BBC documentary "A Hip Hop History" McLaren tells the story of when he was looking for a backing band for Bow Wow Wow (which he was managing at the time). He was taken to a street party in the South Bronx where he experienced the full force of hip-hop culture first hand. He was blown away by the sounds coming out of the sound system and the impressive acrobatic dancing that would break out in the middle of the crowd. McLaren tried to describe his first hearing of scratching: "the sound coming out was totally inarticulate, it was a load of rough noises, noises that sounded a little like guitars but like a concrete chisel sound..."
 
He took that experience back and incorporated it into his album 'Duck Rock'. The album also features the track "Double Dutch" which is heavily influenced by African rhythms and singing years before Paul Simon would gain attention with the concept. Not only was the track one of the first to hit the UK charts that featured record scratching (appearing before Herbie Hancock's "Rockit") the video showed all of the elements of hip-hop executed by the masters. Break dancing by the Rock Steady Crew, scratching  and rapping by The World Famous Supreme Team and huge graffiti murals by the legendary Dondi White (RIP) when it had not yet gained "art" status in the UK.

You will probably recognize the "Buffalo Gals" tribute lyrics being incorporated into Eminem's "Without Me", which is just another great example of the cyclical nature of hip-hop.  Enjoy.