♪ how does the joke begin? three men in a bar? but it's not a bar. imagine the bronx. a corner bodega, maybe a luncheon et, a diner. three men strictly by coincidence find themselves at the same place at the same time. sitting at theter and across the room. and one walks in the door. they created the sound track for the whole wide world.

do they nod at each other, lament or just laugh? hip-hop came from bronx. ♪ i took a walk in this wonderful world ♪ ♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪sha,la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la,

this is the bronx. you've probably heard about it. you may even have a pretty solid image in your head of what it looks like, what it is like. or maybe you can't picture it at all. the south bronx sounds familiar as a bad thing. and the bronx at one time was said to be burning, wasn't it? for the most part, the bronx is overlooked. the never visited borough in new york city which is a shame because the bronx is a magical place with its own energy, its own food, vibe, and rhythm. you've been to brooklyn. maybe it's time you took a look at the bronx. >> in august of 1973, the sister of d.j. cool heart was holding a bri birthday the party for herself.

as cool heart was playing the music on his turn table, he began to slow the music down, slow the record. people stood up and took notice, and they began asking him to do it again. he did it again. they asked him to do it again and again. he attracted more and more people to his performance, and people began to imitate him. and that was the beginning of hip-hop music. it started in the bronx. >> moody's records. inside, rummaging for records just like he used to do is the man, the length egend, one of t select few who created it all, who created the sound who now claim it as their own. you get d.j. cool harp. >> we're working on it. it's still the birthplace of hip-hop undisputed.

because i didn't start it with four guys in a club. i started it in a residential building. we had a watchful eye over the recreation room. she was watching for any disturbance, and it never happened. good music itself. good drug sell itself. good anything sells itself. >> was there a moment when you realized, whoa, this is big. this is going to spread way beyond my neighborhood? >> i saw it spreading, you know, the dmc fellas, when i see that, the commercial i knew it was going. it done took a big lift. i'm rich enough, but time magazine said you got louie armstrong for jazz, elvis

presley for rock and roll, that could be between him and chuck berry, but for hip-hop, i got that. >> feel good? >> very good. >> historically, from the last thard of the 19th century into about 1920, the second language spoken in the bronx was german. from about 1930 to about 1960, the second language spoken in the bronx was yiddish. from about 1965 onward the second language spoken in the bronx is spanish, and that's the way it is today. >> it's got a reputation as a tough place, crime, street gangs, a lot of which goes back to the way it was and some of which, well, like i said, it's got a reputation as being tough. the bronx is, let's face it, a big blank space in a lot of people's minds, even people like me who live, what, ten minutes

away? we don't know anything about that big area between yankee stadium and the bronx zoo. what you should know is that the bronx is big, really big. it's a cross section of the whole world. any immigrant group you could think of. ♪ justin has taken it upon himself to serve as the bronx' culinary ambassador. an evangelist for the cause of splen dif russ. he has a show on the tv and throws parties that would make andrew zimmer turn gray and slump unconscious to the floor.

an explorer and gourmet. >> bronx is so multi-faceted, but for some reason this is the first place i take people. it oozes that flavor of the bronx. >> and he knows what i like, places like this. 188 kuch free toes. old school good stuff. get within 20 feet of this place and prepare to lose your freakin' mind. >> it's basically fried pig. chopped up and deep fried. >> chopped up, deep fried. the shank there? >> yeah, the shoulder. you're going to get that in there. the skin just chopped up. >> skin and fat? >> yeah, like a meat candy bar..

>> amazing. >> need some morrissey yeah. >> i could engage my sensibility. you can come here, eat, drink, wine, women and song and indulge. >> this is pretty much the pork universe in new york. i don't know anywhere else po y porkier than that. >> all along, all along it was right there under food, a gusher of porky goodness. >> there's a great line which they say, cele-bronx. what, you think this is the bronx? to me, i take that as a point of

pride. bronx is where the music gets loud, the men are tough. the women are sexy, the food is spicy. >> so the bad reputation is what protects it. >> i think the perception of it being a place where the function is alive. >> incredible spread. >> yeah, man, it's good. >> it is one place you'll dream about. am i really there? i'm going back to make sure that place is really there. >> i can't lay who have this pork. it's insane. turn the trips you have to take,

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andon't beg your pardon. i was 12 or 13 when hip-hop was started. >> go and take a minute to listen to what these young fools preach. >> show my energy up. >> no logic, a bunch of false profits, pushing a poisonous product. >> i'm not hard to find. i'm right by the zoo, by the gorilla cage. holler at me, baby, hoo, hoo. watch it. ♪ [ dog barking ] ♪ ♪ inner city crimes

>> first to call himself an mc. he and grandmaster flash wrote and recorded "the message." an album that was a complete groundbreaking departure from contents up to that point. >> before we started hip-hop music there was no hip-hop, so we played everything. reggae, rock, watched heehaw. and all of those things kind of became the components of what became hip-hop music. ♪ to the burnin' sand ♪ here i stand ♪ the weapon in my hand is a mic in my hand ♪ ♪ >> i started out as a break dancer. i used to break dance. my brother used to do graffiti. in all of those individual elements, it wasn't really happening anywhere else. so it was just something that could only have went on right in that area. >> okay. you may be thinking about what

about the sugar hill gang? what about them? they were an industry band like the monkees only there to cash in. and they did cash in. >> the most popular record was rapper's delight. i used to live on a fifth floorwalker, they were playing it on the fourth floor, third floor, second floor, first floor. somebody had a boom box outside playing it. a car that drove by had it om. you could hear nothing. it was like a plague. it was like locusts. and that's when i realized, you know, it's something that was beyond what we was doing out in the street. critically, it's not a great record, but if you play it right now, it's still a good record. >> in this case, at least, history has come around. today, nobody looks back at the sugar hill gang as having been

originators. people know who did what. >> as far as hip-hop now, these guys are not trying to tell a story of their time at all. okay. they've popped a lot of bottles, had sex with a lot of women and drove a lot of expensive cars and nothing else happened. you would never know that there was a black president, two wars. you would never know those things, because it's not reflected in the music. and at some point, somebody was supposed to step up and make those songs. 20 years from now they'll still be talking about the message and planet rock and all the classic records, you know what i mean? that's what it is. >> robert moses has been dead over 30 years now. and people in the bronx, for the most part, still hate him. his role as master builder, he rammed the cross bronx and cross way and park system straight

through neighborhoods, seemingly uncaring about the destruction of whole communities. massive housing projects conceived as utopian solutions to stacking the poor in centralized vertical ghettos were also his bright idea. he did leave some impressive works behind him like the bridge, and the park. ha. the bronx happens to be the home of the two largest parks in new york city. hellum bay and van cortland. and you see stuff here you probably ain't seen incentral park. they trace their history to a ship that crashed. where is home for many of the gash fewna community living in the u.s.? you guessed it, the bronx.

>> living in the bronx you're able to travel the world without leaving the burrough. all your dreams, and you smell the diesel. where's that one thing i'm looking for? to be able to do that really in your own back yard is really -- >> cool. >> we have an hudutu, that's coconut soup with fish. over here we have tapo, with banana, malangan in coconut soup. >> neck bones and flat head, let's do that. >> in garafuna cuisine, mashed plantains come with just about every dish. >> you never have it without this. same method, same right hand.

same everything. >> there's fish and coconut soup. >> what kind of fish is this? >> blue fish. >> oh, awesome. i love bluefish. >> and neck bones with bananas. >> that's officially awesome already. ooh, that's tasty. that's really good. underexploited fish. one of my favorites. you know what i've noticed already? the bronx is big. how ludicrous and shameful is it that i can literally see my house from here and i basically have no idea where i am. >> no fault of your own, but that's what keeps the bronx so amazing is that you have all these untouched ethnic enclaves. >> i didn't know there were hondurans here, nonetheless, garafuna. >> i'd say the next big thing is here waiting. denver international is one of the busiest airports

in the country. we operate just like a city, and that takes a lot of energy. we use natural gas throughout the airport - for heating the entire terminal, generating electricity on-site, and fueling hundreds of vehicles. we're very focused on reducing our environmental impact. and natural gas is a big part of that commitment.

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people from all over the world reside in the bronx. as a matter of fact we have residents from every continent on the earth. and if you count the penguins in the zoo that includes antarctica. ♪

♪ give it to me baby ♪ the well spring of hip-hop is right around here, a mostly jamaican community, jamaicans began arriving here in the '50s, and still today, the music, the culture, is all over. sundial international headquarters, makers of traditional herbal remedies. a bronx institution since the '70s. >> this is one of the

ingredients. this is the mahogany bath. this one is used for any type of body weaknesses. >> pops baba, a grassroots bush doctor, hale ealer. he uses recipes passed down from mothers and aunties. >> don't care what is wrong with you. you will show improvement. >> whatever ails, he's got a cure. for the body, the nerves. he helps to get your man hood back among other things. >> about 1956 when i came to america. so i can make it in the apartment. and when i'm boiling the whole project smell up. it would drive them.

i'd bottle it and sell it in the bronx. the bronx is the best place in america. nowhere like the bronx. >> in the yard out back, some freshly roasted jamaken coffee and this man. a transaur us rex. africa jambada. they go back to the same housing projects. >> that's big baba. ♪ >> he and his associates in the nation were absolutely instrumental in shaping what became hip-hop culture, graffiti, deejaying and rap.

>> we put tapes on it or we soaked the label off. you know, you had spies in each other camps, trying to figure out what was their beat. i used to soak it up, put on tape to cover the records. >> you were unusually voracious in your musical taste. of all the records in the world, how did you come upon it? >> i said this is a type of weirdo here, and i took it home and heard the sound, and i said whoa, this is some funky hmm. they were doing some style of funk. and since the beginning we always play tribute to james brown, sly, the family stone. and to, you know, all the

pioneers. ♪ >> up north a ways in west jamakah another suburb. and people have to make the long hump to another burrough. afterwards, a person could use a drink. and if you're a jamaican person you can use the drink back home. wray and nephew. >> here you get it with cranberry juice with milk and water. that's what wray and nephew is to the bronx. >> desus is one half of a group.

he knows what's happening in the news or what happened last night. >> bronx is isolated from the rest of the city. the bronx is kind of abandoned up here. people get on a boat and ride up to staten island before they ride up to the bronx. >> i am inadvertently part of that problem. >> yes. they always say it's going to be part of the city, but it's not. >> who made today possible? this is the mayor right here. >> i am happy here, and i will drink more of your wray and nephew, regardless of what it might be doing to my brain, but then i will eat. >> is that the pork foot? >> pigtail. awesome. i love this.

oh, man, that looks good. people sort of stop on their way to the bronx when it wasn't burning anymore. when ft. apache wasn't something we have to think about. you remember your first time? how did you feel first time stopping? >> i cried. that summer, 15 times, stopping for just throwing up against the gate, you remember that. you remember your first time. when you lose your stop and frisk virginity, you remember it. >> i've never been stopped and frisked. >> i wonder why. is it because you have a cnn show? if you hang around here long enough, i can get you stopped and frisked. >> they talk about diy culture, do it yourself. and you better be able to do it

yourself in the bronx because nobody else is going to do it here. >> there are certain crimes that will happen here that are not going to happen in brooklyn. >> they're still crackheads? >> they are getting their crack and they're not bothering anyone. they are respecting parts of this community. you see them every day. this is a crackhead that has been here for 25 years. >> that takes some determination. >> if i could be a crackhead, i would be the best crackhead possible. >> i was a crackhead, and oh -- >> we've all been there. trust me. >> hey, what's up? >> all right. look, i'm thinking curry goat. >> desa's uncle used to own this place. now it's lamby. and lamby took over from someone who put too much curry in their

goat. curried goat and ox tail with rice and peas and yes, mac and cheese. i can't rye cyst. >> correct me, if i'm wrong, there's a lot of good food in the bronx. >> there is. if people would get over their bias and come above 96th street they would find out. >> if the bropgs were a neighborhood in manhattan, you'd have hipsters crawling all over you. >> oh, my god. if you live in the bronx, you're not necessarily going to leave the bronx because everything you want, everything you snead in t -- need is in the bronx. people hold onto that. and it's true of rye lander avenue. even this neighborhood was all white until the '50s. it's very retrent, the whole immigrant experience. >> who lived here in the '50s.

>> white. kissing dogs on the mouth, white white. you're from 225th. every ethnic that lives in the bronx has that. the next group that is going to take over here is mexicans. it's not an issue of who owns it. and they're next. and i'm looking forward to that, because i enjoy a good quesadilla. but i made a good decision coming to lammies today. i'm always here for the curried goat and mac and cheese. finely crafted. exactingly precise. desire for such things often outpaces one's means. until now. hey matt, new jetta? yeah.

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the twos and the fives here are the greatest trains because they go from bronx, through manhattan all the way to brooklyn. it's the only lines that will get three burroughs visibility. >> bronx, still here. >> still hire. but like even then, that brings me back, tony. that sound. >> do you remember the first time you put spray paint on a wall? >> yeah. >> when was that? >> summer of '70. >> back then, seemingly overnight, they were everywhere.

princes of the city. their pieces stretching across city blocks, whole trains, ever more audacious. some, like this man, were artists. >> in the late '70s, to be on a rooftop like this with a brew or whatever, hanging out, we're waiting for somebody to come through with a cool letter, like that t and screaming oh, my god, here it comes. here it comes. >> there's mine. >> there's mine. but what if you thought the train you painted was on the left side and you messed up. it's on the right side. you just wait until this train goes all the way to brooklyn and comes all the way back. >> this was the audience that you had in mind? >> i think all of us spoke to each other back then. >> other artists? >> it was just the rush of the event and the accolades you'd receive, not from the public but

your peers. >> i miss those trains. others, not so much. i get it. there wasn't an unmarked, unscrawled upon bit of new york. but for a while it was a golden time. >> the whole point of being here was what the bronx was about. coming up to the parties with the likes of van and kirk and everyone of that era. it's watching trains. it's what we called benching. >> watching each other's art go by. >> yes. >> this was his museum where he and others would meet and admire each other's work. it was really all about this, about a few seconds, as their pieces rode by to be evaluated by peers. there for a moment then gone. like, well, all of their work from that time, long-since removed or painted over.

>> ultimately, the legacy. here's our legacy. you know, we don't have a movement anymore. the movement has been given to the world. and if you go to trains and milan and paris or whatever, certainly not the russian system, but if you go to some of these other cities around the world, they're bombed. their rail systems are destroyed. i mine, today, if i could have a train running, it would be epic. any generation, if that concept was available. like, here's some public art, guys. let it run through our countryside. ♪

[ bike horns ] ♪ [ horns ] >> take the six train to the end of the line. then do the same with the number 29 bus. technically, you'll still be in the bronx, but it kind of won't feel like it. city island is a fishing village turned what? a parking lot for pleasure boats and a long established restaurant row for new yorkers. >> picked the perfect day to

come out here. >> desus says this place, and desus is always right. >> how long? >> 15, 20 minutes. >> i want to buy some nautical bric-a-brac while i'm here. >> you get here, and oh, the beach is closed for medical waste. it's not a day that goes by that you depon't go in the water and come out with a maxi pad. >> you were here yesterday? >> i was here yesterday, for my sister's wedding. >> i noticed all the big catering halls. >> if you get married, arraigned. the baby's not yours. >> a massive fish factory, having started my cooking career

in one just like it. i'm also a sentimental fool, and i like this kind of thing, steamers. boiled striper and snow crab and a nice cold beer, yes, thank you, desus. >> it's like a knighting ceremony. just sit up, and, like, take it all in. >> thank you. i could have done that myself. >> it's part of the. >> it's part of the ambiance. it's the perfect place for a date, but it's the worst for a date. it's either a huge turnoff or a huge turnon. you might give a lady of what they're about to get into, a little bib, little sucking action. in an hour, this could be you. >> wow. what have i been missing all my life. this is pretty awesome.

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the first european settler to come to the bronx came in 1639. his name was jonas bronck. b-r-o-n-c-k. in 1895, all the areas east were

annexed to the city. and in 1898 they decided that the two areas previously annexed should also become a burrough, what to call it? right in the middle ran the bronx river. and that's why it is called the bronx and not just plain bronx. if you have a question about the bronx, questions are lloyd altan has the answer. born and raised here, he's never really left for over seven decades. this is a disappearing aspect of new york for sure. the real thing jewish deli. liebman's is one of the last. there used to be lots of places

to get your reuben or cherry soda to drink. >> howard cosell is on the air. suddenly, you see a tongue of flame licking up into the sky. and he says, this is the kind that jimmy carter saw, ladies and gentlemen, the bronx is burning. the old image of the brox as middle class, healthy area had survived up until 1977. this shattered it. >> the bronx was burning like the story, and that stuck. politicians make the brox a poster child for what was wrong, hopelessly be wrong, would never get any better. >> we're snapping up large numbers of buildings. >> first of all, he takes out a huge fire insurance policy. so he goes to his junkies and

says, listen, see that empty apartment building on the top floor? i'm going to turn my back. you take all of the lead pipes that are in there, but i have one request, before you leave, turn on the water, and the water comes down hiring everyone else, they hire an arsonist, they collect all the money and leave. >> i remember it well. it was bad. are things getting better? >> is the bronx better? absolutely. there is more home ownership in the south bronx than ever existed in history. that doesn't mean we have reached utopia. how long will it take? i'm a historian. i look in the other direction. i would say my crystal ball is cracked. >> i got four cheeseburgers! >> is it the best hamburger in the world? far from it, my friends.

is it even strictly speaking a burger? i mean, it's small and square and steamed. it can be, especially when you eat a lot of them as one tends to, a hate yourself in the morning experience. but if you grew up like i did with white castle, this connects with some deep dinosaur part of the brain evoking a powerful emotional response. >> these are a great cultural part of my childhood. we'd come here 24 hours a day. guys on their dates. there was a bunch of punk rock kids. so along with that potpourri of humanity i just described, you had guys from the mental institute. that's bronx, man. it was great. >> maybe you know handsome dick from bands like the dicktators. he grew up in the bronx.

and back in the day, like me, this was his special warm and happy place. >> i can go by and eat a full, two and a half hour meal and be stuffed and see a white castle. i still want one. you can forget mcd's, if you need a white castle skrachl, none of the other place will do. i can't stop eating these. [ male announcer ] tomcat bait kills up to 12 mice,

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[ sounds of children playing ] the bronx academy of letters is something of a cause for me. an institution whose mission i see is absolutely vital, if kids like these kids from a tough neighborhood often coming from tough family situations are going to do the things they're capable of, of having the things they want. i believe there is no way to realize your dreams if you can't articulate them, if you can't, with words, convince others to give you the opportunities, the chances you need to grasp. >> i wanted to talk today,

really, i wanted to tell you in a short period of time everything i know about writing. >> today i'm dropping by in my role as substitute teacher. >> i'm from manhattan, and i don't know anything about the bronx, really. i'm ridiculously, shamefully ignorant. you think people knows what it's like to grow up in the bronx? >> everybody sees the bronx as the emergence of hip-hop. aside from that, the bronx is lively. you hear people screaming outside your window. >> i grew up with that since i was, like, seven. >> it's happened that way. the sense of community. >> i have been teaching here for eight years. what people forget, they focus on lots of health issues, lack of education, but i can be out walking to the train to go to a field trip. and they say hi to at least 30

people. they know everyone. >> what other bronx specialties should i be paying attention to? >> mcdonald's. >> that works for you? >> yeah. i like bacon egg and cheese sandwich. >> that's a classic. a bodega classic. love that. >> i can walk outside and have an italian icy. as soon as the weather gets nice, you can cohito. >> what is chopped cheese? what is chopped cheese? i have to see it. where does this come from this mutant cheese product? this thing, whatever it is, it will do just fine. as long as you're reading orwell's essays while you're eating it, kid. >> i think somebody experimented in their house. it's a simple thing but it

tastes so different from a cheeseburger, which is what it kind of it. but it's really updown or downtown to say i want a chopped cheese. and they're, like, what? >> so this is a regional, indigenous specialty? >> and it's newer. it hasn't been around that long. >> i've been just about everywhere in the world you can think of, as beautiful as many cities are you group herew up e. you're living in paris. you'll want a chopped cheese sandwich and will be angry that you can't get one. >> so there it is, a slice of a deep and noble subject. ♪ the relentless >> city right there, relatively unexplored, a cross section of

the tasty good stuff. a petri dish. salt lake city, utah was founded by the mormon church. >> wei >> we believe our body is a temple and should treat it as such. >> there are things we're taught by the mormon church not to do. >> the population of the state of utah is mostly mormon, a faith that discourages drinking, smoking and drug use. but over the past few years, it's been rocked by something unexpected. >> oh,do