A wild muse chase

{ DOWNLOAD CENTRAL } THE KINSHIP OF JAZZ AND HIP-HOP

- Sanjoy Narayan

There's a scene in The Get Down, Netflix's lavish but short-lived 2016 series about the birth of hip-hop, in which young MCs in the Bronx huddle around turntables, excitement palpable, as the breakbeat drops.

The crowd surges and suddenly there is only rhythm: raw, stripped-down, irresistible. Watching it felt like being transported into a myth: part musical, part street documentary, part fever dream.

For fans of the show, it captured the very essence of a cultural revolution whose effects would last for a very long time. For Netflix's bean-counters, though, it was an expensive gamble gone wrong; the series was canned after one season.

Despite its abrupt end, The Get Down left something lasting. It reminded us of what the Bronx in the 1970s really was: a crucible.

Out of crumbling buildings and social decay came a sound stitched together from other sounds. DJs became archaeologists, digging through crates of funk and jazz records, isolating their most explosive parts - the breaks - and looping them until the dancers nearly levitated.