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HIP HOP SAMPLES A Historical Anthology Revised Edition
Edited By Glen Garrett
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Sneak Preview HIP HOP SAMPLES A HISTORIcAl AnTHOlOGy reViseD eDiTion
Edited by Glen Garrett California state university–northridge Bassim Hamadeh, CEO and Publisher Christopher Foster, General Vice President Michael Simpson, Vice President of Acquisitions Jessica Knott, Managing Editor Kevin Fahey, Cognella Marketing Manager Jess Busch, Senior Graphic Designer Marissa Applegate, Acquisitions Editor Stephanie Sandler, Licensing Associate
Copyright © 2013 by Glenn Garrett. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be re- printed, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information retrieval system without the written permission of Cognella, Inc.
First published in the United States of America in 2013 by Cognella, Inc.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 978-1-935551-70-6 contents
Introduction vii
PART ONE Aesthetics 1
Th e Hip Hop Wars
By Tricia Rose 3
Word of Mouth
By William Jelani Cobb 25
PART TWO Roots 49
Sipple Out Deh
By Jeff Chang 51
African Jive
By David Toop 67 Hip Hop
By Steven Hager 73
Post Soul
By Nelson George 95
PART THREE Hip Hop Blows Up 111
Rapper’s Delight: Hip Hop Goes Commercial
By Jim Fricke and Charlie Ahearn 113
“The Force” and “Making Records”
By Russell Simmons with Nelson George 127
Uptown-Downtown: Hip Hop Music in Downtown Manhattan in the Early 1980s
By Jonathan Toubin 143
PART FOUR Hip Hop Grows Up 161
What We Got to Say
By Jeff Chang 163
KRS-One
By Charles Aaron 187
The Culture Assassins
By Jeff Chang 195 “Gangsta, Gansta: The Sad, Violent Parable of Death Row Records” and “Bad Boy”
By Robert Marriott and Dream Hampton 221
No Malcolm X in My History Text
By Michael Eric Dyson 241
PART FIVE Crossover and Diversity 257
Black Owned
By Nelson George 259
Ladies First
By Laura Jamison 275
Hip Hop Chicano: A Separate but Parallel Story
By Raegan Kelly 285
“Rap Goes Pop” and “Walking the Line: Rap and Censorship”
By Alex Ogg and David Upshal 297
APPENDIX
Timeline 315 by Jeff Chang Introduction
by Glen Garrett
Given its universal popularity and its troubling eff ects, hip hop is a vital cultural language that we all better learn. To ignore its genius, to romanticize its defi cits, or to bash it with undeserving generalities is to risk the opportunity to engage our children about perhaps the most important cultural force in their lives. —Michael Eric Dyson Holler If You Hear Me, p. 138
college course revolving around the study of Hip Hop—its emergence, develop- ment, and subsequent importance—could arguably be a valuable addition to the course off erings of almost any department in today’s college or university. Hip Hop courses can Amost often be found in Ethnic Studies, Women’s Studies, Music, Art and Dance departments, logically. But certainly English, Political Science, Sociology, Business, Comparative Religion, Philosophy and arguably even Criminal Science departments could eff ectively use the study of Hip Hop and its history as a springboard to the study of their respective disciplines, as well as an eff ective way to capitalize on students’ interest. Likewise, in almost any department in the col- lege or university, there is still likely to be some impassioned opposition to the study of Hip Hop in the academic environment. Hip Hop, if nothing else, has always been highly controversial, and for a number of diff erent reasons. Like many of its cultural and musical predecessors—again for various reasons—it has often been viewed as threatening by the older generation and the status quo. Embedded in the study of Hip Hop and its artists are most of the major problems and debates of our time. It is this very controversy, and the subsequent debate that these opposing views often inspire, that makes the study of Hip Hop so rewarding and academically valuable. Hip Hop culture is now at least 30 years old, and there is no denying that its infl uence is pervasive in every corner of our society. Hip Hop, of course, is much more than just the medium by which rappers express their ideas. It is the culture and lifestyle from which the ideas are germi- nated as well. Hip Hop shines a fresh light on some very old problems, as well as redefi ning and unearthing more than a few new ones. Hip Hop exposes both the decadence and desperation of the urban ghettoes’ dirtiest street corners, as well as the greed and corruption of corporate boardrooms. Hip Hop expresses both the naiveté of youthful optimism and the jaded opportunism of those pandering sensationalism and gratuitous sex and violence. Hip Hop’s products and styles generate
vii billions of dollars from recordings, fashion, advertising, movies, television, and every other form of capitalism’s traditional pillaging of art and culture. At the very same time, Hip Hop can be seen inspiring social and political revolutions, Afro-centric religions, and the counter-culture in general. Hip Hop started in the mid 70s, as the latest expression of the generation gap, the outrage of the economically oppressed, and the eternal desire of young people to party and rebel against the hypocrisy of their parent’s values. And, like all of its many predecessors—and much to the dismay of the status quo—Hip Hop was quickly and efficiently marketed to and appropriated by middle-class white teens as a way to vicariously experience the outside world, the very outside world from which their parents had been trying so hard to protect them. In the process, these expressions of a youthful and rebellious counter-culture always seem to eventually become mainstream “pop culture.” Studying the history of how Hip Hop’s four elements have traveled, to some extent sepa- rately, through the gristmill of American show business, art and entertainment, is a particularly revealing study of American cultural values. There are many parallels in the histories of American music, dance and art styles from previous generations. Bakari Kitwana, in his book, The Hip Hop Generation, has arbitrarily defined the “Hip Hop Generation” as anyone born between 1965 and 1984. (1.p.xiii). Obviously, almost all of today’s college students are going to be younger than that. That makes them, one hopes, not the “post- Hip-Hop generation,” but the “second Hip Hop generation.” At any rate, today’s college students, unlike those of Kitwana’s “generation,” didn’t grow up with Hip Hop as the culture itself was maturing. Instead, they grew up consuming it after it had already morphed into a mainstreamed record business commodity. Hip Hop, in its first thirty years, has indeed undergone some pro- found changes and developments, and it has definitely broadened its scope and audience. Hip Hop is global now and is popular in many cultures and many languages. The influence of Hip Hop culture is much larger than the Rap category of the record business. Rappers or MCs tell us what to wear, what to drink, how to talk, what to think and how to reinterpret our world. Rappers in the Middle-East rap in Arabic about their politics and predicaments. Preschool kids in white middle- class neighborhoods take Hip Hop dance classes. Our first African-American president, Barack Obama, while slightly older than Kitwana’s “generation,” was elected with a graffiti-inspired poster and took his wife to Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing on their first date. One of the newer members of the Supreme Court, Sonya Sotomayor, is a Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx. In much the same way that the first Hip Hop generation didn’t seem to appreciate the civil rights struggles of their elders, perhaps today’s college students are not really aware of the struggles in Hip Hop’s own history. Hip Hop is hollering at us from across the abyss of the gender and generation gaps, and though we may be put off at first by the deafening volume and thunderous echo, we are obliged to listen; because if we do, we often find the message all too familiar. Hip Hop is old enough and important enough now, that it deserves some historical perspective and certainly more academic attention. The most obvious and perhaps most important truth to be garnered from the study of Hip Hop’s history, is the old saying that history often repeats itself. Actually, according to William Jelani Cobb, it doesn’t repeat itself—“but it is prone to extended paraphrases.” (To the Break of Dawn, p.43). That’s close enough. Hip Hop, at first glance, appears to be radically new, but it’s an obvious continuation of a recurring cycle in American cultural history that began with “minstrelsy” and continued with ragtime, the Blues, jazz, swing, rock n’ roll, disco, etc. All of these forms of art and entertainment were initially viewed as dangerous and revolutionary, but were
viii Hip Hop Samples eventually understood to be merely part of a cyclical cultural evolution. All of the above started as honest expressions of disenfranchised minorities, particularly African-Americans. Then, after proving to be popular and powerful forms of communication, these forms of expression were then sentimentalized and exploited for their popularity amongst young, primarily white, youth who wanted to identify with the minorities’ predicament. The jazz poet Gil Scott Heron is often men- tioned as a forerunner and early influence of rap. Particularly, his recording of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” is most often singled out. Perhaps more to the point, however, would be his recording called “It Ain’t No New Thing,” which recounts the story of the recurrent practice of Afro-American music being exploited by the mainstream media. As each new generation tries in some way to separate itself from the hypocrisy of their parents, they look for a new form of expression, the validity of which is often determined, literally, by how offensive their parents find it. Even before the roaring 20s, there was Hip Hop prototype Jelly Roll Morton, who flaunted his extravagant wardrobe, his excessive “bling” (including a diamond in his teeth). He also notably bragged about his purported prowess with “bitches and whores” (notice the historical spelling). The Blues and Hip Hop both share roots that come from the “toasts” and “legends” developed and perpetuated by prison culture. Hip Hop? “It Ain’t No New Thing.” Vanilla Ice and the Beastie Boys are the Hip Hop generation’s version of Pat Boone or the Osmond Brothers. Grandmaster Flash turned down the opportunity to record the first rap record because he didn’t think the essence of what he did could be captured on a recording, and because he was afraid his work would be copied and stolen. Similarly, in 1916, Freddie Keppard turned down an opportunity to make the first jazz record for essentially the same reasons. The struggles of Ice-T, N.W.A. and 2 Live Crew with censorship and the first amendment are the latest versions of the struggles of Lenny Bruce, Allen Ginsburg, William S. Burroughs, Larry Flynt, and countless others who have fought for an artist’s right to disgust, titillate and otherwise exploit our basest nature. All of Hip Hop’s cultural predecessors have been ridiculed and riddled with the same criticisms we see leveled at Hip Hop today. Studying the history of Hip Hop should only whet one’s appetite to study its forbearers in other kinds of Afro-American entertainment. And, when better understood, it should provide an understanding that better connects us with previous and future generations—rather than separating us. This collection of writing about Hip Hop is intended to provide a general history and backdrop of information that could easily be adopted as a textbook for a Hip Hop course in several different departments. There is plenty of historical information included in these pieces, and most of the important moments and personalities in Hip Hop’s history are covered. The intent, however, is not necessarily to provide a comprehensive history, but to tell the story with different voices. The beauty of this anthology is that it covers the subject from a variety of viewpoints, including those of writers with wildly varying styles and agendas. With that aim in mind, it was deemed valuable to allow some limited amount of overlap from article to article. It is also expected that the lecturer or professor may need to augment the material with his or her lectures. Some of the writing is academically dry and rather meticulous. On the other hand, some of the writing has an almost “fanzine” kind of sensationalism. Some of the writing is intended to be objective history, and some of it is intended to be an impassioned defense against Hip Hop’s critics. The author’s background, point of view and motivation should always be kept in mind as the reader moves from selection to selection. While some of Hip Hop’s most famous writers are unfortunately not represented here, the authors that do contribute to this anthology include many of Hip Hop’s most respected
Introduction ix journalists and historians. It is, of course, hoped that each selection will inspire further discussion, debate and research, and perhaps even a complete reading of the source from which the article was drawn. The first two selections in the anthology are intended to introduce the subject and the param- eters of the discussion, as well as to outline the current dilemma in which Hip Hop now finds itself. There is a short discussion of Hip Hop’s most prevalent criticisms and defenses and an attempt at defining a Hip Hop aesthetic. The next three selections describe Hip Hop’s roots and emergence from the squalor of the Bronx in the 1970s. The following three selections describe Hip Hop’s emergence as a national and global phenomenon. The fourth section describes Hip Hop’s maturation as serious art and lucrative commerce, and finally, the last section points out Hip Hop’s diversity and crossover potential. If Duke Ellington were alive, he would probably gleefully point out that like the music he loved, Hip Hop also defies categorization.