No Half Steppin'

No Half Steppin': An Oral And Pictorial History of New York City Club the Latin Quarter and the Birth of Hip-Hop's Golden Era
TitleNo Half Steppin': An Oral And Pictorial History of New York City Club the Latin Quarter and the Birth of Hip-Hop's Golden Era
Publication TypeBook
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsGray, Claude "Paradise", and Giuseppe "u.net" Pipitone
PublisherWax Poetics
CityNew York
Keywordsgolden era, New York, oral history, photography
Copies at the Archive2

About the book:

In the mid-1980s, DJ duo the Awesome 2, along with hip-hop impresario Paradise Gray, helped transform Manhattan salsa club the Latin Quarter into an iconic hip-hop institution.

Legends were born in that bustling Times Square club—from Stetsasonic, KRS-One, and Eric B. & Rakim to Queen Latifah, Public Enemy, and A Tribe Called Quest. Unsigned artists could drop a hot set and score a record deal—or get booed off stage like Amateur Night at the Apollo.

You could walk into the club a nobody and come out a star.

A musical incubator of hip-hop’s Golden Era, the Latin Quarter was also pivotal in the creation of the Stop the Violence Movement.

 

About the authors:

Claude “Paradise” Gray was raised in the South Bronx. He was co-founder of the X Clan, whose 1990 album To the East, Blackwards is an Afrocentric and socio-politically conscious Golden Era hip-hop classic. Prior to that, he was host and entertainment manager for the Manhattan nightclub the Latin Quarter where he was a key figure in transforming it into a historical hip-hop venue. Paradise is also a noted writer, photographer, and hip-hop historian/archivist, as confirmed with this book, No Half Steppin’, where his personal collection of photographs and memories—paired with an oral history from some of the club’s most famous patrons—tell the story of the most important incubator of talent for the Golden Era of hip-hop.

Giuseppe “u.net” Pipitone is an author and an activist; a lover of hip-hop culture and Black history; and a believer in the power of oral history. His previous books include Bigger than Hip Hop (2006), Renegades of Funk (2009), Louder than a Bomb (2012), and Don’t Believe the Hype (2016).