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A14 PEOPLE / ARTS
Thursday 10 augusT 2023
Hip-hop turns 50, reinventing itself and swaths of the world along

the way

By Deepti Hajela some of it. In some forms of
Associated Press hip-hop the ties between
NEW YORK (AP) — Hip-hop rappers and criminal figures
was born in the break that were real, and violence spi-
moment when a song’s vo- raled out, as in high-profile
cals dropped, instruments deaths like that of Tupac
quieted down and the Shakur in 1996 and The No-
beat took the stage. torious B.I.G. in 1997. But
At the hands of the DJs, in a country where Black
that break moment be- people are often looked at
came more: a composition with suspicion by authority,
in itself. The MCs got in on it, there have also been plen-
speaking their own clever ty of stereotypes about hip-
rhymes. So did the dancers, hop and criminality.
b-boys and b-girls. Graffiti As hip-hop spread, a host
artists took it to the streets of voices have used it to
of New York City. speak out, like Bobby San-
Hip-hop spread around the chez, a Peruvian Ameri-
country and the world. At can transgender, two-spirit
each step: change, adap- poet and rapper who has
tation. Art, culture, fashion, released a song in Que-
community, social justice, chua, the language of the
politics, sports, business: Wari people that her father
Hip-hop has impacted In this April 8, 2016, file photo, inductees MC Ren, from left, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and DJ Yella from came from.
them all. N.W.A appear at the 31st Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Barclays “I think it’s very special and
Center in New York.
In hip-hop, “when some- (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File) cool when artists use it to
one does it, then that’s how reflect society because it
it’s done. When someone And then in 1979, The Sug- makes it bigger than just
does something different, arhill Gang put out “ Rap- them,” Sanchez says. “To
then that’s a new way,” per’s Delight ” and intro- me, it’s always political, re-
says Babatunde Akinbob- duced a rap record that ally, no matter what you’re
oye, a Nigerian-American would reach as high as talking about, because
opera singer and longtime 36 on Billboard’s Top 100 hip-hop, in a way, is a form
hip-hop fan in Los Angeles, chart list. Michael “Wonder of resistance.”
who creates content on so- Mike” Wright says he knew When hip-hop first started
cial media using both musi- the song was “going to be being absorbed globally, it
cal styles. big. “I knew it was going to often mimicked American
Hip-hop “connects to what blow up and play all over styles, says P. Khalil Saucier,
is true. And what is true, the world because it was who has studied its journey
lasts.” Those looking for a a new genre of music,” he across the Africa continent.
starting point have landed tells The Associated Press. These days, homegrown
on Aug. 11, 1973, when And Guy “Master Gee” hip-hop can be found ev-
Clive Campbell, known as O’Brien says, “If you Grandmaster Flash (at podium) & the Furious Five accept their erywhere. “The culture as
DJ Kool Herc around the couldn’t sing or you award for being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame a whole has kind of really
Bronx, deejayed a party. couldn’t play an instru- during ceremonies in New York, March 12, 2007. rooted itself because it’s
Campbell had started ex- ment, you could recite po- (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, file) been able to now trans-
tending the musical breaks etry and speak your mind. Shante, who became one emy’s “Fight the Power” form itself from simply an
of records and speaking And so it became acces- of the first female MCs to became an anthem when importation, if you will, to
over the beat. It wasn’t sible to the everyman.” gain a wider audience. it was created for filmmak- now really being local in
long before the style could Female voices took their Other women have joined er Spike Lee’s 1989 classic its multiple manifestations,
be heard all over the city. chances, like Roxanne her, from Queen Latifah to “Do the Right Thing,” which regardless of what coun-
Lil’ Kim to Nicki Minaj to Me- chronicled racial tension in try you’re looking at,” says
gan Thee Stallion and more. a Brooklyn neighborhood. Saucier, a professor of criti-
Over the years, hip-hop Some in hip-hop pulled no cal Black studies at Bucknell
has been used as a me- punches but often those University in Pennsylvania.
dium for just about every- messages have been met That’s to everyone’s ben-
thing. Mainstream America with fear or disdain in the efit, says Rishma Dhaliwal,
hasn’t always been ready mainstream. When N.W.A. founder of London’s I Am
for it. though. came “Straight Outta Hip-Hop magazine.
Coming from America’s Compton” in 1988 with “Hip-hop is ... allowing you
Black communities, that loud, brash tales of police in someone’s world. It’s al-
has also meant hip-hop abuse and gang life, radio lowing you into someone’s
has been a tool to speak stations recoiled. struggles,” she says. “It’s
out against injustice, like in Hip-hop (mainly that done a big microphone to say,
1982 when Grandmaster by Black artists) and law `Well, the streets say this is
Flash and the Furious Five enforcement have had a what is going on here and
Hendogg from The Sugarhill Gang, left, Grandmaster Dee of told the world in “ The Mes- contentious relationship this is what you might not
Whodini, center, and Michael “Wonder Mike” Wright of The sage,” about the stresses of over the years, each eye- know about us. This is how
Sugarhill Gang, pose for a photo on Capitol Hill in Washington, poverty in their city neigh- ing the other with suspicion. we feel, and this is who we
June 11, 2008. borhoods. And Public En- There’s been cause for are.’” q