Kassie's Column: Happy 50th Birfdaaaay Hip Hop!!
Rob Base & I on the Tom Joyner Fantastic Voyage. {Contributed photo}
“Hiiiip hop, hiiiip hop, hiiiip hop”
If you’re a hip hop head, like myself, as soon as you read those first two words you immediately recited them the way Dead Prez did in their song rightfully entitled ‘Hip Hop.’
Today, the groundbreaking, culture shifting, regularly appropriated genre turns 50.
Half a century ago, it was birthed, at 1520 Sedgewick Avenue in the Bronx NY when Clive Campbell aka DJ Kool Herc introduced to partygoers what is now known as breaking – isolating the instrumental portion of a song where the drum beat is emphasized. Utilizing two turntables, DJ Kool Herc switched back and forth elongating the break thus creating the foundation for hip hop music. And setting the stage for young Kassie to be embedded into its magnificent web 15 years later.
My earliest, firmly rooted memory happened between the ages of six and seven.
Now my recollection is a little murky because I did a little research and my remembrance isn’t aligning with what I see on the World Wide Web. Nevertheless, the core of the memory is correct and I’m gonna roll with what I know.
My Big Brother #1, Pooh, was a high school senior in 1988. That year, Lexington Senior High School won its first boys’ basketball state championship. Pooh was a member of that team. My young mind has always reminded me that during their championship run the song “It Takes Two” by Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock was in heavy rotation. And it was that year. The question is when. I can vividly remember Pooh coming to the house and that song would be playing in his car. Everybody was playing it in their cars. Except my mama because she had a rule, “We listen to what I want to listen to in my car.” That’s why I know so much Jackson 5, Temptations, Con Funk Shun, KC & The Sunshine Band, Kool & The Gang, Ohio Players, GAP Band, etc. music.
From the moment I heard “I wanna rock right now, I’m Rob Base and I came to get down…” over and over, I was hooked. The beat was infectious. The lyrics were affirming cause Rob was in his ‘this is who I am take it or leave it bag.” The song as a collective was timeless – then and now.
At the time, I only heard rap (cause rap and hip hop aren’t the same – rap is an art form; hip hop is the collective culture – got it?) sparingly. During this monumental year in my life, NWA released their wide eyeing debut album. LL was dominating radio. And a young Lana Moorer aka MC Lyte had appeared on the scene to let everyone know that women could hold their own.
While this year planted the seed, the garden grew rapidly in 1990 when I was introduced to Stanley Kirk Burrell’s flashy, uptempo, hard hitting, emphatic dancing, fun rhyming and captivating style. Known to the world as MC Hammer, his 1990 album ‘Please Hammer Don’t Hurt Em!’ exploded all over the culture. Reigning as the first hip hop artist to go Diamond (10 million or more sold), Hammer Time had me in a chokehold. By the time, I attended my first concert that summer, I was a full-fledged Hammer stan – then and now.
Adorned in a shoestring barrett and my Hammer t-shirt, my jheri curl and I were shaking with delight in the Greensboro Coliseum as Hammer shimmed, stepped, rolled, hopped, leaped and typewrited across the stage and coliseum floor. He commanded and commandeered every ounce of the atmosphere setting a bar so high that the feeling I had that evening is one I always desire to experience in concert. If you can’t give me MC Hammer energy, I don’t want it.
By the time I rolled into middle school, I was given permission to listen to 102 Jamz (pretty sure I was still under surveillance though) where I was introduced to an array of artists – Queen Latifah, Digable Planets, The Fugees, YoYo, Another Bad Creation, Outkast and my all time fave, The Notorious B.I.G. I heard songs that taught me life wasn’t the same for all of us. I heard songs that provided me with knowledge that’s still applicable. I heard songs that instantly made your body move as soon as the beat dropped.
To sum up 50 years of hip hop in one column is impossible. The culture is interwoven into my life. From the various styles to the lingo to the music to the history lessons to the way it’s been the soundtrack for so many moments in my life. I even began DJ’ing (DJ Lil Bit in the house) about 10 years ago because there’s something magical about being in control of the musical oasis for an event.
You can’t look around without seeing the influence of the culture everywhere. A collective that was once frowned upon, dismissed and expected to dissipate as quickly as it arose is now the leading lady of the never-ending music movie. Bloop.
I’m grateful for hip hop. And always will be.
It helped raise me.
It helped mold me
And it’s still serving a purpose in my life.
Yes, I’m a Christian. Yes, I love the Lord. Yes, I love hip hop (old school hip hop though – be very clear).
*toast*
Before I wrap this up, I would be amiss if I didn’t give some shoutouts. It’s a must cause I mean we are talking hip hop. And I’m feeling nostalgic.
Shoutout to my mama who helped me develop my love of music.
Shoutout to my auntie who took me to that MC Hammer concert because my mama was unable to do so.
Shoutout to Big Brother #1 for introducing me to rap.
Shoutout to Salt-N-Pepa for showcasing doorknocker earrings.
Shoutout to that Warren G CD – my first cd purchase – that I bought secretly.
Shoutout to The Lost Boyz “Jeeps, Lex Coupes, Bimaz and Benz” – the first rap song I wrote down all the lyrics for. Can still rap it word for word, too.
Shoutout to the late Cutt Butt who DJ’d all the teen parties growing up.
Shoutout to 102 Jamz SuperJams of the 90s - #IYKYK.
Shoutout to Jarrard Goldsmith, Sr., who I now know but at the time of the A&T’s Halloween Homecoming Hip Hop Convention in 1998 I didn’t, who curated one of THEE BEST concert experiences ever – DMX, Jay-Z, Outkast and Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Shoutout to the Lexington Middle School Sockhops.
Shoutout to Roxanne Shante.
Shoutout to Foxy Brown.
Shoutout to Missy Elliott – I still wanna see her in concert.
Shoutout to Lauryn Hill – her album stays in rotation 25 years later.
Shoutout alllllllll the women in hip hop – the emcees, the ones behind the scene.
Shoutout to Method Man just because.
Shoutout to the late DMX for that free concert on a random Tuesday at State. Forever etched in my mind.
Speaking of DMX, shoutout to the Ruff Ryders whose volume one compilation album was in heavy rotation during Senior Beach Week 1999.
Shoutout to the labels that made the phrase “What a time to be alive” a real thing in the 90s. We was outside!
Shoutout to Donald Leach aka DJ Lil D for your ability to create a good time through music – whether it was at Talley, at your house and even during the pandemic.
Shoutout to Patrick Douthit aka 9th Wonder who despite being an icon living is one of the coolest persons I know. Plus his parties and the Fasss Auntie Lounge be ‘Jammin on the one.’
Shoutout to Rapsody for representing womanhood and NC so beautifully.
Shoutout to all the hip hop legends that are currently on tour this year. If you have the opportunity to see them perform, go!
Shoutout to hip hop because you deserve every flower you’ve received.
And shoutout to the doubters who thought it was just a bunch of noise being made. In the words of the G.O.A.T. Biggie – I bet “You never thought that hip hop would take it this far.”
Jokes on you.
