KPWR

KPWR (105.9 FM, Power 106) is a commercial radio station located in Los Angeles, California, broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area on an analog signal and in HD Radio. KPWR airs a Rhythmic Top 40 format playing hip hop and R&B with occasional rhythmic pop/dance titles. It is owned and operated by Emmis Communications and is one of its two flagship stations alongside WQHT ("Hot 97") in New York City.

KPWR's studios are based in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, and the transmitter is at Mount Wilson.

History

Early years (1959-1986)

105.9 FM signed on as easy listening KFI-FM on July 15, 1946, later becoming KBMS in 1958 before adopting the KWST call letters and "K-West 106" moniker in 1969. During its years as KBMS and KWST, its format had been beautiful music prior to its flip to a rock format on January 1, 1975. K-West emulated the then-popular sound of KMET and KLOS. By 1981, though, the ratings had slipped and KWST had changed to a Top 40 format, and let all of their disc jockeys go. KWST eventually evolved into KMGG, or "L.A.'s Magic 106 FM" in summer 1982, and played upbeat Adult Contemporary music.

Cali

Santiago de Cali (Spanish pronunciation: [sanˈtjaɣo ðe ˈkali]), usually known by its short name "Cali", is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in Southwestern Colombia, with an estimated 2,319,655 residents according to 2005-2020/DANE population projections. The city spans 560.3 km² (216.3 sq mi) with 120.9 km² (46.7 sq mi) of urban area, making Cali the third largest city proper and metropolitan area in population and the second largest city by area in the country. As the only major Colombian city with access to the Pacific coast, Cali is the main urban and economic centre in Southwestern Colombia, and is one of the fastest growing economies in the country. Cali is also known as the capital of Salsa music. The city was founded on 25 July 1536 by the Spanish conquistador Sebastián de Belalcázar.

Cali is also a center for sports in Colombia, as the only Colombian city to have hosted the Pan American Games (in 1971). Cali hosted the 1992 World Wrestling Championships, the ninth edition of the World Games in 2013, the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in 2014, and the World Youth Championships in Athletics in 2015.

Hip hop

Hip hop or hip-hop is a sub-cultural movement that formed during the early 1970s by African-American and Puerto Rican youths residing in the South Bronx in New York City. It became popular outside of the African-American community in the late 1980s and by the 2000s became the most listened-to musical genre in the world. It is characterized by four distinct elements, all of which represent the different manifestations of the culture: rap music (oral), turntablism or DJing (aural), b-boying (physical) and graffiti art (visual). Even while it continues to develop globally in myriad styles, these four foundational elements provide coherence to hip hop culture. The term is often used in a restrictive fashion as synonymous only with the oral practice of rap music.

The origin of the hip hop culture stems from the block parties of the Ghetto Brothers, when they plugged in the amplifiers for their instruments and speakers into the lampposts on 163rd Street and Prospect Avenue and used music to break down racial barriers, and from DJ Kool Herc at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, where Herc mixed samples of existing records with his own shouts to the crowd and dancers. Kool Herc is credited as the "father" of hip hop. DJ Afrika Bambaataa of the hip hop collective Zulu Nation outlined the pillars of hip hop culture, to which he coined the terms: MCing or "Emceein", DJing or "Deejayin", B-boying and graffiti writing or "Aerosol Writin".

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States. The service was created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005. In November 2006, it was bought by Google for US$1.65 billion. YouTube now operates as one of Google's subsidiaries. The site allows users to upload, view, rate, share and comment on videos, and it makes use of WebM, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated and corporate media video. Available content includes video clips, TV clips, music videos, movie trailers and other content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos.

Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, but media corporations including CBS, the BBC, Vevo, Hulu, and other organizations offer some of their material via YouTube, as part of the YouTube partnership program. Unregistered users can watch videos, and registered users can upload videos to their channels. Videos considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users affirming themselves to be at least 18 years old.

Hip Hop Lives

Hip Hop Lives is the collaborative album from MC KRS-One and producer Marley Marl. This is a historical album in the sense that 20 years prior, KRS and Marley were bitter rivals involved in the legendary Bridge Wars. In an interview with Unkut.com, KRS-One spoke on how the album came together and as it was released 20 years after his debut album Criminal Minded, he and Koch Records wanted something special in celebration of that and decided to get Marley Marl to produce the whole LP.

The album is a quasi-sequel to Nas' 2006 album Hip Hop Is Dead, not a criticism as its title suggests, as KRS-One is known to have agreed with Nas' declaration of rap music's "death". In fact the duo recorded a tribute to Nas for the album which, however, was cut from the final tracklist. It also comes with a 22 minute behind-the-scenes video on the making of the album if bought on iTunes.

Conception

"It all happened with one phone call," Marley Marl told AllHipHop.com during a March 2006 interview. "They called me and he jumped on the phone and told me it would be spectacular for Hip Hop...My reason for doing this is to show these kids that [Hip Hop beefs] are not that serious." The first single is "Hip Hop Lives (I Come Back).