MC and DJ Awards Ceremony Handbill

The Hoe Avenue Boys Club was a popular venue for early rap shows. “DJs, initially, are like bandleaders, like Count Basie…the same way in bebop that people started singing to those riffs, how the vocalists became front and center, how Count Basie moved to the background – that’s kind of the same thing that happened with the DJs and the MCs [in hip hop],” LL COOL J recalled. DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore is credited with inventing the record scratching technique. MC Busy Bee Starski was involved in one of the first major “rap battles” against Kool Moe Dee in 1981.