A “deep dig” to find Milwaukee’s first hip-hop song led the 88Nine Radio Milwaukee (88.9 FM) team down a path that started with a 1980s movement, through hip-hop icons such as Speech of Arrested Development, Darryl McDaniels of RUN-DMC, and Milwaukee DJs and MCs. The new podcast series Backspin sees hip-hop expert and DJ Tyrone Miller (DJ Bizzon) teaming up with 88Nine’s Music Director Justin Barney on a quest to definitively answer the questions who exactly recorded Milwaukee’s first hip-hop song, and how did Milwaukee create a hip-hop scene.
In six, 30-minute episodes, the pair document their months-long quest with interviews from national and local artists, DJs, and historians who witnessed the birth of Milwaukee hip-hop firsthand. Along the way, the podcast provides an insightful view into Black America in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, through the lens of hip-hop.
“The series is about so much more than the first song,” Miller said. “It’s about the journey of getting to that song.” He added, “Hip-hop is more than a genre. It’s connected everywhere – radio, movies, TV, fashion. It’s in every piece of culture.”
Backspin is a fun journey of discovery and celebration of hip-hop, a tale that takes several surprising twists, and is available now on all major podcast streaming services and at radiomilwaukee.org/backspin.
