Entry · catalog no. 9421
block party
/ /ˈblɑk ˌpɑɹti/ /BLOK PAR-tee
noun · The Bronx, New York · 1970s
✓ Verified
1.
A neighborhood party held outdoors, usually on a closed-off street, with a DJ, food and dancing.
“They shut the street down Saturday for the block party.”
2.
In hip-hop history, the kind of party where DJs such as Kool Herc developed the breakbeat style that became hip-hop.
“Hip-hop came up at block parties before it came up on records.”
Origin & Attribution
Outdoor neighborhood gatherings long predate hip-hop in Black communities, but the block party is the setting most tied to hip-hop's start: DJ Kool Herc, a Jamaican-born Bronx DJ, played the 'Back to School Jam' at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue on August 11, 1973, which many historians mark as hip-hop's founding party. The term is not credited to a single coiner; it names the format, and Black and Latino Bronx youth built a new music culture inside it.
1973
Kool Herc's Back to School Jam at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, the Bronx
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Northeast
The Bronx, New York · 1970s
Spoken by
Black and Latino New Yorkers, hip-hop community
$BLOCKPThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady53 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
80/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1973
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@bxgriot
The Bronx, NY
@phillyanne
Philadelphia, PA
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Citations & Sources
■
Rolling Stone, 'Kool Herc and the History (and Mystery) of Hip-Hop's First Day', 2023
web
■
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, DJ Kool Herc induction essay
web
■
+ Cite a source1520 Sedgwick Avenue, Wikipedia
web
See also