Today hip-hop is a global phenomenon, but the new Netflix original series "The Get Down" explores the early days. Set in the Bronx in the late 1970's, disco is on the decline and a new sound is emerging.
We met up with the stars and creative team on the set in Glendale, Queens.
"The get down, the break part where you just like get to dance and the break dancers get to do their thing and the emcee grabs a mic and that's when the hip-hop starts," said Herizen Guardiola, an actor in the series.
"It's just really cool because all the grafitti is authentic to the time period," added Justice Smith, another actor.
It's a gritty origins story. For director Baz Luhrmann and supervising producer Nelson George, it's a chance to celebrate art created at a time when young people had so little to work with.
"I’m being told I’m no one? Well I’m going to paint my name and a picture on the side of a train because when I do I am someone,” said Luhrmann. “There were no pianos, so what could I do with two records?"
"Now kids use laptops and are able to do that, but there wasn’t any laptops so your turntable became your laptop in 1977," added Nelson George, a hip-hop historian and producer for “The Get Down”.
Hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash helps keep it authentic, even making sure visiting reporters like me get it right. When talking about the four elements of early hip-hop, don't say "rapping."
"Verbalizing to the beat of music was emceeing,” said the hip-hop legend. “In this time frame that we’re talking about it needs to be emceeing. So it needs to be DJing. MCing, break dancing, graffiti."
Got it?! "The Get Down" debuts August 12.