How West Coast Hip Hip Got Its Sound

#132: Continue our year-end roundup with us! Today, our episode about the 50th anniversary of hip hop. 

Original episode description below:

Hip Hop officially turns 50 this weekend - Aug. 11th to be exact. As we all know by now, its roots are in New York. The west coast sound developed later but, when it finally hit, LA made Hip Hop its own. 

It's the late 1970s, disco is dead and funk is hitting the clubs in LA. Alonzo "Lonzo" Williams is at the center of it all — DJing, producing and bringing acts at his club, Eve After Dark in Compton.

As a new genre borne out of funk and disco – hip hop – is taking over the East Coast, Williams wants to make sure his dance floor is packed. Run DMC performed there, the crowd went wild, and it clicked for him: bring hip hop into the L.A. club and music scene. He then started World Class Wreckin' Cru, and the West Coast hip hop sound took off. 

How to LA speaks to Williams, known as the "Godfather" of West Coast hip hop, about the beginnings of the sound. We sat down with him in his Gardena studio, where many of the greatest hip hop hits were recorded.