Hot 21 Radio

As a teenager Grandmaster Flash began pioneering the turntable-as-instrument, playing the now iconic Bronx block parties that gave birth to hip-hop and revolutionized music. On Friday, he was back home, commemorating 50 years of the genre with a performance that had New Yorkers born in the mid-20th century reliving their youth -- and hip-hop's.

The audience swayed with their hands in the air as Flash threw it back to the jams of the early 1970s, which ushered in the genre that's profoundly impacted music as well as fashion, dance and the culture at large. Read more