{"title":"The Emcee","description":"\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEarn the mic.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor MCs. The voice of the culture: rhythm into language, language into legacy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNobody was handed this job. It was built in public, in front of crowds who’d tell you immediately if you hadn’t earned it.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"snapback-hat-2","title":"Emcee Cap","description":"\u003ch2 dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNobody hands you the mic.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe DJ was the star. The MC just held the microphone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eWhen Kool Herc was running parties in the Bronx in 1973, the man on the mic wasn't there to rap. Coke La Rock called out names, kept the room moving, held the energy between breaks. Master of Ceremonies — literally the job title, and literally a support role. The turntables were the show.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eIt took about six years for that to invert completely, and the reversal was so total that most people now assume it was always that way.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eBut the older idea never went anywhere. The mic doesn't get picked up, it gets handed over — by someone who decided you were ready, in front of a room that will let you know immediately if you weren't. Ciphers, battles, open mics, the whole apparatus is built on the premise that the right to speak is earned in public and can be lost the same way.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eFor writers, freestylers, battle rappers, and anyone still doing the work before they get the room.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eEarn the mic. Still the only way it works. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eTHE DETAILS \u003cbr\u003e- 80% acrylic, 20% wool \u003cbr\u003e- Structured six-panel snapback, flat brim, high profile \u003cbr\u003e- 6 embroidered eyelets \u003cbr\u003e- Black cap, white embroidery \u003cbr\u003e- BX Originals mark embroidered on back panel \u003cbr\u003e- Element name embroidered on front left panel \u003cbr\u003e- Adjustable plastic snap closure, one size fits most. Head circumference: 21⅝″–23⅝″ (54.9 cm–60 cm) \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBX ORIGINALS — TRUE TO THE CULTURE \u003cbr\u003eHip-hop has four elements: DJing, MCing, Breaking, Graffiti. Each cap in this series carries one, set in that element's own lettering tradition. Not four versions of one graphic — four distinct hands held together by one system. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE BX VAULT \u003cbr\u003eEvery BX Originals piece connects to the BX Vault — our library of long-form writing on hip-hop history and practice. Not marketing copy. Real research on the people, places, and decisions that built this culture. The culture on the cap. The context behind it. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFROM THE BRONX \u003cbr\u003eBX Originals documents hip-hop's four elements from where they started. We're not a fashion brand borrowing an aesthetic. We're building an archive that happens to make things you can wear.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BX Originals","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54436578197814,"sku":"6A822FD7D00EF_4792","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0955\/9602\/0022\/files\/03fa3ebe-il_fullxfull.8439077199_ctt8.jpg?v=1787363422"},{"product_id":"1520-cap","title":"1520 Cap","description":"\u003ch2 dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt started in a rec room.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eOn August 11, 1973, a sixteen-year-old named Cindy Campbell rented the recreation room in the basement of her apartment building for twenty-five dollars. She wanted money for school clothes. She made the invitations by hand and set the door at twenty-five cents for girls, fifty for boys.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eHer older brother Clive handled the music. The neighborhood knew him as DJ Kool Herc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eWhat he did that night was notice what everyone in the room already felt — that the crowd came alive during the break, the passage where the melody drops out and the drums carry alone. On most records that lasted seconds. So he ran two copies of the same record on two turntables, played the break on one, spun the second back to the top, and cut across just before the first ran out. He called it the merry-go-round. The best fifteen seconds of a record became as long as he wanted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe dancers who waited for it got a name from the man extending it: break boys and break girls. Coke La Rock took the microphone. Four elements, one basement, fifty cents at the door.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe 1520 Cap is the third in our Shorthand series, after the 1200 and the 808 — numbers that mean nothing to most people and everything to some. The first two honor machines. This one honors a building. So it's built the same way a gear cap is built: the front carries the number, the underbrim carries the spec sheet, and the specs are for a hundred and two apartments and one rec room.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e1520 Sedgwick Avenue is still standing, still residential, still somebody's home. There's no photograph of it anywhere on this cap, and that's deliberate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eTHE DETAILS \u003cbr\u003e- 80% acrylic, 20% wool \u003cbr\u003e- Structured six-panel snapback, flat brim, high profile \u003cbr\u003e- 6 embroidered eyelets \u003cbr\u003e- Black cap, white embroidery \u003cbr\u003e- BX Originals mark embroidered on back panel \u003cbr\u003e- Element name embroidered on front left panel \u003cbr\u003e- Adjustable plastic snap closure, one size fits most. Head circumference: 21⅝″–23⅝″ (54.9 cm–60 cm) \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBX ORIGINALS — TRUE TO THE CULTURE \u003cbr\u003eHip-hop has four elements: DJing, MCing, Breaking, Graffiti. Each cap in this series carries one, set in that element's own lettering tradition. Not four versions of one graphic — four distinct hands held together by one system. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE BX VAULT \u003cbr\u003eEvery BX Originals piece connects to the BX Vault — our library of long-form writing on hip-hop history and practice. Not marketing copy. Real research on the people, places, and decisions that built this culture. The culture on the cap. The context behind it. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFROM THE BRONX \u003cbr\u003eBX Originals documents hip-hop's four elements from where they started. We're not a fashion brand borrowing an aesthetic. We're building an archive that happens to make things you can wear.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"table-responsive dynamic\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong class=\"size-guide-title\"\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"BX Originals","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54457842073910,"sku":"4615416_4792","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0955\/9602\/0022\/files\/1520_hero.png?v=1787661656"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0955\/9602\/0022\/collections\/About_Emcee.png?v=1788021662","url":"https:\/\/bxoriginals.com\/collections\/emcee.oembed","provider":"BX Originals","version":"1.0","type":"link"}