station slot. see the full spectrum of human folly and commit some follies of your own. your own. clear leer -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com ♪ how does the joke begin? three men in a bar? but it's not a bar. imagine the bronx. a corner bodega, maybe a luncheonette, a diner. three men strictly by coincidence find themselves at the same place at the same time. sitting at the counter and across is the room is melle mel. the door open and who walks in? three men who created the soundtrack for the whole wide world.

do they nod at each other, lament or just laugh? hip-hop, it came from nowhere else, it could have come from nowhere else but the 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, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, 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. kool herc was holding a birthday party for herself. as kool herc 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 legend, one of the select few who created it all, who created the sound who now claim it as their own. google who created hip hop. go ahead. you get dj kool herc. >> 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. at the time it wasn't the building. we had a watchful eye over the recreation room. she was watching for any disturbance, and it never happened. that's how it survived. good music sells itself. good drug sell itself. good anything sells itself. and this was something good. >> 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. let's say i don't have money and all that. 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 third 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 is a patch work of ethnic enclaves. 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 splendiferous. he has a show on the tv and throws parties that would make andrew zimmer turn gray and slump unconscious to the floor.

a showman. 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 cuchifritos. on 188th street in the grand concourse. old school new york puerto rican 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. what else?

puerto rico, i miss you. >> need some more. the bronx became the place i could engage my sensibility. you could really come here, eat, drink, wine, women and song and indulge. >> this is pretty much the center of the pork universe in new york. i don't know anywhere else porkier than that. this is the kind of thing i thought we lost in new york. 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? the music is really loud and it's a mess. 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. if those things weren't true, you wouldn't know what the bronx was. >> so the bad reputation is what protects it. >> i think the perception of it being a place where the funk 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 off this pork. it's insane.

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no, love for my haters, forgiveness for my enemies. move spectators on the day they shot kennedy. i'm from the bronx, new york. and i don'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. it's pure uncut garbage. feel my energy up. >> no logic, a bunch of false prophets, 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 ] ♪ >> first to call himself an mc.

another pioneer, melle mel. in 1982, he and grandmaster flash wrote and recorded "the message." an album that was a complete groundbreaking departure from the kind of lyrics and content up to that point. >> before we started hip-hop music there was no hip-hop, so we played everything. reggae, rock, watched heehaw. that was like a favorite in our house. 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 monkeys or the archies, built to cash in quick in what was seen as a fad. they were a fad 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 on. 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 originals or innovators. 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. you would never know there was 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 straight through dozens of working class 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. the bronx happens to be the home of the two largest parks in new york city. pelham bay and van cortlandt. and you see stuff here you probably ain't seen in central park. this group comes from honduras, guatemala, and belize. they trace their ethnic group to a single slave ship that crashed off st. vincent. where is home for many of the garifuna 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 borough. it's like an addiction. 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. >> well, that sounds good. >> neck bones and flat head, let's do that. >> in garifuna 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 some nice smoked 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, 200,000 garifuna. >> i've been saying the neck is the next big thing for years now. still waiting. why combine performance with a conscience?

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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, the music 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. >> baba rashan, or pops baba, a grassroots bush doctor, healer. he uses recipes passed down from mothers and aunties. blends of roots, spices, herbs, barks and woods. >> if you use this you will show improvement. >> whatever ails, he's got a cure. wood root cure for the blood, the body, the nerves. an intestinal cleanser. 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. hey, what are you doing in there, what kind of hocus-pocus are you doing in there?

the bronx is the best place in america. nowhere like the bronx. >> in the yard out back, some freshly roasted jamaican coffee and this man. a tyrannosaurus rex of music. a man who changed the world for generations. afrika bambaataa. they go back to the same housing projects. >> that's big baba. that's great. ♪ >> he and his associates in the zulu nation were absolutely instrumental in shaping what became hip-hop culture, break dancing, 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. and we was digging in the crates hard. >> you were unusually voracious in your musical taste. of all the records in the world, how did you come upon it? >> i came upon digging in the crate in the village. 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. man, some futuristic type of funk where they didn't know they were doing some style of funk. the miami base sound. and since the beginning we always play tribute to james brown, sly, the family stone. for bringing the funk, which the hip-hop came, and to you know, all the pioneers of hip-hop.

>> up north a ways in west jamaica another working class community where subway service is pretty limited. and yet people have to get up, go to work and often make the long hump to another borough. afterwards, a person could use a drink. and if you're a jamaican person you can use the everyday drink go-to drink of back home. any time day or night. wray and nephew. >> a very strong rum to make everything. 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. deezus versus kid marrow. it is a very fast free-form diatribe of what is happening in

the rest of the bronx and the city. >> 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 have to be reluctantly part of the problem. >> yes. they say the bronx will be gentrified. that's not happening any time soon. 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. >> let's just say this is the neighborhood where they stop and frisk. >> you remember your first time? how did you feel? >> i cried. that summer, 15 times, stopping and frisk, just thrown 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? >> i've been arrested. >> 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 often nobody else is going to do it for you. >> if you go to the bronx you basically go back in time.

>> there are certain crimes that will happen here that are not going to happen in manhattan and brooklyn. >> there's 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. there 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. no judgments. >> hey, what's up? >> all right. look, i'm thinking curry goat. >> desa's uncle used to own this place. but that was three owners ago. now it's lammy. and lammy took over from someone who put too much curry in their goat. we all know that is a sin against god. lammy fixed things.

curried goat and stewed ox tail with rice and peas and yes, mac and cheese. i can't resist. >> 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 bronx 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 need is in the bronx. so why would you go past 149th street. so all that right in my neighborhood, the ethnic pride. people hold onto that. and it's true of rye lander avenue. the italian doo-wop, all that sort of stuff. even this neighborhood was all white until the '50s. it's very recent, the whole immigrant experience. >> who lived here in the '50s. >> all white people. >> what kind of white people? >> white, white. we are all white. kissing dogs on the mouth, white

white. but it moved forward. now you have this. i'm from 223rd. 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. the thing is, it's an immigrant neighborhood. it is not a matter of who owns it at that particular time. 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 lammy's today. >> good move. >> i'm always here for the curried goat and mac and cheese. and i quit smoking with chantix. my children always wanted me to quit smoking but i resigned myself to the fact

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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 number lines that will get three boroughs 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 oh, my god, look at that t. kids are screaming, oh, my god, here it come! here it come! >> 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? the audience that mattered? >> 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. >> futura 2,000. his style and that of a few of his colleagues spread across the globe.

>> i miss those trains. others, not so much. i get it. it went on and on until it seemed there wasn't an unmarked, unscrawled bit of wall in 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. >> you were watching each other's work go by. >> absolutely. >> art lovers. this was his museum, where he and his fellow artists came to watch and work. it is jarring to learn all those years later that 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 mean today, if i could have a train running, it would be epic. and i think any artist, if that concept was available, like, here's some public art, guys. let it run through our countryside. ♪

[ 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 far from the neighborhood by car? >> by car? 15, 20 minutes. seems like a world away. >> i want to buy some nautical bric-a-brac while i'm here. >> this is new york city? >> this is cape cod in the bronx. >> you get here, and oh, the beach is closed for medical waste. it's not a day that goes by that you don't go in the water and come out with a maxi pad stuck to you. >> you were here yesterday? >> i was here yesterday, for my sister's graduation. every time you have an event of note in the bronx, you have to come celebrate here. >> i noticed all the big catering halls. >> if you get married, arraigned. the baby's not yours. you come here. >> seashore restaurant. a massive fish factory, having started my cooking career in one just like it.

i'm also a sentimental fool, and i love this kind of thing. steamers, the true taste of childhood. 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 ambiance. it's the perfect place for a date, but it's the worst food for a date. it's either a huge turnoff or a huge turn on. you might give a lady a preview 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.

>> saturday night, that's where people are going. city island.

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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 1874, all the area west were

annexed to the city. and in 1898 they decided that the two areas previously annexed should also become a borough. but what is it called since it never had a name before. they looked at the map and right smack in the middle of the territory ran the bronx river, so they named it after the river, the borough of the bronx, and that is why it is called the bronx, and not just plain "bronx." if you have a question about the bronx, chances 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 where you could get your brisket, and chopped liver. a good pastrami.

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 of thing that jimmy carter saw, ladies and gentlemen, the bronx is burning. the old image of the bronx 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 bronx a poster child for what was wrong, would always be wrong, would never, we were told, get any better. >> so you now have a slum lord, essentially, snapping up large numbers of buildings? >> yes, first of all he takes out a huge fire insurance policy. so he goes to the judges and says you see that apartment

complex, i'm going to turn my back. you take all the lead pipes in there. but i have one request, please. before you leave, turn on the water? and the water comes down driving everybody else out. they then hire an arsonist. he sets fire to the building. they collect all the money and they 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 community for you. >> that's the bronx, man. it was great. >> maybe you know handsome dick from bands like the dicktators. he grew up where else, the font of art and music, that is 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 mickey d's, if you need a white castle scratch, none of the cheap places will do. i can't stop eating these. ♪ [ male announcer ] you wouldn't ignore signs of damage in your home. are you sure you're not ignoring them in your body? even if you're treating your crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, an occasional flare may be a sign of damaging inflammation. and if you ignore the signs, the more debilitating your symptoms could become. learn more about the role damaging inflammation may be playing in your symptoms

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♪ 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. at all times, at night, in the morning. you hear people screaming outside your window. >> i grew up with that since i was, like, 7. >> it's happened that way. >> 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 is. but it's really uptown 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 around the world are, 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. ♪ >> sitting right there, relatively unexplored, a cross section of the tasty, original good stuff. ♪

a petri dish for talent. for culture. the great unknown. go look. >> bx, home again. ha-ha-ha. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com since i was 14 years old, i always wore cowboy boots. maybe because my little boy role models were always the men in the blo-- in black hat. rich boone, richard vaughn, silent killers. men with pasts. men from somewhere else who found themselves in the great american west. a place where reinvention, a new life of always possible as long as you were willing to