From AFNS:
Sitting in the multinational corporation’s boardroom, Chase
executives reportedly spent most of Friday afternoon nostalgically
recalling the financial company’s hip-hop roots, reminiscing about being
young bankers who helped create the vibrant music, cultural, and
investment scene in the South Bronx.
“Chase came from the streets,
and we were part of this real underground banking movement that was
thriving in hip-hop culture,” said Chase Consumer and Community Banking
chairman Todd “Bizzy B” Maclin of the FDIC-insured institution’s early
days in the late 1970s, before it became a household name. “Back in the
day, our financial crew was down with Afrika Bambaataa, Morten Arntzen,
the Cold Crush Brothers, Winthrop W. Aldrich—all the hip-hop pioneers.”
“We
were pushing the boundaries of providing lending services and
experimenting with a lot of funky-ass fund transfers,” Maclin added.
“Everybody in the Bronx knew that Chase had the freshest deposits, the
freshest withdrawals, and the freshest adjustable-rate mortgages.”
Maclin,
who explained that the five pillars of hip-hop include DJing, rapping,
graffiti art, breakdancing, and banking, spoke reverently about Chase’s
origins at “old school block parties.” While describing the lively
culture that thrived from 1977 to 1983, before hip-hop banking had gone
mainstream, Maclin told reporters that a diverse crowd of b-boys,
fledgling financiers, and local residents attended the huge blowouts to
listen to music, dance, and refinance debt at lower APRs.
Speaking
wistfully about one particular “wild bash” in 1978, Maclin smiled as he
recalled how a packed dance floor erupted into a frenzy when a
19-year-old Chase teller “grabbed the mic” and started holding forth on
loan modification provisions while DJ Jazzy Jay spun stripped-down
electro-funk breaks....MORE
Coming up a very different side of the banking business, First Citywide:
