Rise and shine of Block Parties From South Bronx to Milan

According to the New York Times, it was 7 May 1945, when the news spread that Germany had withdrawn from World War II and New York's mayor, Fiorello Henry La Guardia, had to vehemently ask citizens to go home or back to work after a block party broke out in Times Square: it was the first big block party in history. A typically New York form of celebration, a well-known topos in the culture of the American suburbs and a milestone in hip hop, that from the streets of the South Bronx on 18 June arrives in Milan, with adidas Originals x Foot Locker on the occasion of the new adidas Forum Basketball release. But what exactly is a block party and how does it relate to the hip hop phenomenon?

New York's hip-hop culture was graced by the blackout on the night of 13-14 July 1977, which left most of the city in the dark, a night of looting in electronics shops was the catalyst for the subsequent cultural explosion. 
In 1979, a version of this party sound would find its way onto vinyl. Pioneer status is little reward for some forgotten creators who sowed the seeds of what is now a multi-billion dollar industry, but, as Gary Warnett wrote in the Mr Porter Journal, 'those moonlit sessions changed music forever'.