Hip hop was not just Sugar Hill Gang and cocaine stories from Queens.
It was as much "Roll Skate, Rock Bounce," as "Another One Bites the Dust."
As a matter of fact, in the alley of Fenimore street, that's all you heard. It was played out the open, un-screened window of Mr. Burke's youngest daughter's bedroom. There was a needle on the record, with or without the quarter and Technics.
There may have been one speaker blasting instead of two, and the quarter could have been used to buy Now & Later's from the corner store. But it was the summer, and music was blaring from the roller skating rink on Eastern Parkway before the Winker rap on the FM dial.
Before breaking came out of the Bronx, and dancers were freestyle before pop-lock, Hip Hop, or Brooklyn's version of it, was born.