Statement to SouthSide Jamaica, Queens Hip Hop Community from Hip Hop Pioneer Professor MC Eva Marie King, MS

Statement to SouthSide Jamaica, Queens Hip Hop Community from Hip Hop Pioneer Professor MC Eva Marie King, MS 

From the first Park Jams at St. Albans Park in Jamaica, Queens, New York City in 1974 through the 1970s when I began MCing at DJ/MC battles, SouthSide Jamaica has always been at the forefront of the Movement and Culture that is known today as Hip Hop.  On any given Sunday in the 1970s there was a Park Jam "going down"  from the New Park on Merrick Boulevard and Baisley Boulevard all the way through to I.S. 8 Park, over to South Jamaica Houses (40 Projects) and finally to Van Wyck Park.

Music was always in the air and we as young'uns controlled the Park Jam Movement, simply by taking our DJ equipment to the Parks and Projects and playing our own breakbeats and rhyming.  The term Hip Hop had not been coined yet, but we were surely DJing and MCing. 

In 1977 when Fantasia opened on Merrick Boulevard near Linden Boulevard we welcomed popular DJs and MCs such as Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, DJ Hollywood and The Funky Four Plus One from the Bronx and Harlem to perform.

We must continue to write and document our own history because our town, the first Black middle-class in New York City was part of the Hip Hop Movement and Culture before it had a name. Ours was different from other boroughs, but independent in that we had some of the best sound systems in New York City.  Crews like Disco Brothers Connection (DBC), Jamaica Sounds Power Crew (Jamaica Sounds) and Infinity Machine boasted massive powerful sound systems.

So don't wait for anyone from another town to document your history, do it yourself, or it will never be told comprehensively and truthfully.

Written entirely by:

Professor MC Eva Marie King, MS 

on Wednesday, April 14, 2021

in SouthSide Jamaica, Queens, New York City USA