50 Years Down The Line, You Can Start This
'Cause We'll Be The Old School Artists
I do love to hear the story, again and again. On August 11, 1973 DJ Kool Herc threw a party on 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, New York. It lasted from 9pm to 4am. The cover charge was 50 cents for men, 25 cents for women. That party became the Big Bang of the Hip-hop universe, which is being celebrated today and seemingly all summer as we cross the half-century mark since.
All week as I reflected on this milestone, reading testimonials from all corners of The Culture, I sought to pen an eloquent personal essay reflecting on my journey as both hip-hop fan and artist. Hip-hop has given me everything; a debt I can never repay. Alas, my ambition outpaced my ability, and I’m sitting here at the dawn of Hip-hop’s 50th born day with a bunch of notes, thoughts, inchoate reflections, and cold coffee. I’m thinking more about the lost and displaced people in and around the embers in Maui, and failing to avoid doomscrolling. Here is where I pivot. Today is a celebration of celebrations—I’ll save the storytelling for the book or future posts here. Bear with me as I cross space and time and play this song in the background.
The original plan to shoot this video on Friday fell through, so my fellow medicine man Gabriel Teodros reworked it so that we could get into the Vanishing Seattle exhibit on Sunday morning to shoot the video for his new song “Spacetime” (produced by Vitamin D). The space, lighting and song were so complimentary, it really felt like all we had to do was show up, rap, shoot (then GT edited the whole thing in a day). I’m glad we shot it in the morning instead of harsh mid-day lighting. There’s a muted brightness that worked perfectly. This is the raw image, no color correction.
Excellent journalism abound for Hip-hop’s half-centennial! My favorite pieces:
Washington Post - 50 Hip-hop Artists Share 50 Songs They Love
New York Times - Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary: 50 Rappers Share Their Stories
Cormega’s Instagram Feed
On a Monday night, I did a very un-Monday night thing: I rapped at a rap show. It was at The Crocodile for Souls of Mischief’s Seattle stop of their 30 year (!!!) Anniversary tour of 93 ‘Til Infinity. The homie Grynch had an opening set slot, and he brought Sol, Thig, and me up to rock “Spliff (Remix).” Always fun rapping with these guys. But this was one of those moments where the energy level was muted, half the crowd responded to the hand-raising, and feels like you’re way too energetic for the room. Later on, folks in the crowd tell you that they couldn’t hear your vocals. SMH.
These are my four favorite hip-hop albums so far this year. Not bad for a 50 year old.
I almost forgot: a version of my hip-hop origin story exists in published essay form in the anthology book Empire of Funk : Hip Hop and Representation in Filipina/o America (that’s me rapping on the cover). Here are the first two paragraphs from an excerpt deep in the tumblr archives:
1. A Bad Rap
It’s 1987 somewhere in Waipahu. I am seven years old at a wedding and I’m dressed in slacks, a dress shirt and a pair of Adidas. The rented-out gymnasium is laid out from front to back like almost every big party I’ve been to: a food table laid out buffet style, tables and seats for eating and chilling, a dance floor that’s too big, and, at the very end of the room: a DJ behind a table standing between two large speakers flanked by his pompadour-and-rat-tailed mobile DJ crew.
I remember thinking they were the coolest Filipinos I’ve ever seen. I had been to many other Filipino parties with DJ’s but these dudes aren’t playing music from their living room speakers or using two tape decks. They have turntables and their own sound and lighting system. A banner hangs on the wall behind them repping their mobile DJ company name, probably something like “fresh” or “fusion” or something else that begins with “f.” They play all the 80s pop stuff all wedding DJ’s should play, but they’re also playing a bunch of rap. I emulate the older kids’ breakdance moves when they aren’t looking. The DJ pays Run-DMC’s “My Adidas,” and I’m like “hey, I’m wearing those!”
The cheapest copy on the internet of this rare book is available here!
Hip-hop links for that ass!
Saturday, August 12: Seattle Hip-hop 50 celebration 12pm-8pm @ the waterfront, free and open to the public!
Abyssinian Creole has a show in Seattle (Clock-out Lounge) on September 23rd!
Khingz (1/2 of Ab Creole) has a new song, The Yotty Button!
Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-hop exhibition is open at Museum of Pop Culture (MoPop) and runs through January 2024!
Remember hiphopsite.com? It doesn’t exist anymore but someone’s squatting on the URL! (Free hiphopsite.com!)
This 1999 song, “50 Years,” by All Natural wins the Most Apropos award today!