A Glimpse Into My Hip Hop Background
I may only be 22, but I’m a hip hop old head. And not afraid to say so. I study hip hop like some people study for the MCAT. I took multiple classes on hip hop and rap music in college (shoutout to AAAS: 155B Hip Hop History and Culture with Prof. Chad Williams). They were held some of my favorite academic discussions and also some of the coolest papers I’ve ever written for a grade. But I had always been involved with hip hop in some way or another, for as long as I can remember. Hip Hop as a culture is comprised of four, though some people (including myself) would argue five, pillars: rapping, DJing, graffiti, break(dancing)ing , and knowledge. For years, I’ve engaged with all of them in different ways.
In middle school, I was a shy, nerdy kid who did his schoolwork and played computer games with the few friends he had. At the white Christian school I went to, I always felt like I wasn’t black enough thanks to the black (and some white) kids pointing out how I didn’t know the popular music or dances. I never watched the stereotypical black American movies, or listened to the music. My parents are Jamaican immigrants, and I went to predominantly white schools all my life, so how was I supposed to get exposure to these things? I distinctly remember in 5th grade when the “Crank Dat Soulja Boy” and “Get Silly” dances were starting to get popular. I saw a classmate showing off his skills in the hallway, and it was then that I decided I was going to learn for myself. I went home, hopped on YouTube, and spent hours watching Soulja Boy and his squad leading a step-by-step tutorial from the inside of a drained swimming pool. I went back to school the next day, and during PE, it was my time to shine. I “cranked dat” like my life depended on it, and it worked out well enough for me to make friends with a few of the other black kids. So in a desperate attempt to fit in at school, I learned to dance, with YouTube as my teacher. Line dances, black dances, Michael Jackson and his moonwalk, and eventually breakdancing. Everything I learned came from spending hours watching YouTube and a determination to not be the nerdy “white” black kid.
In high school, I joined my school’s hip hop dance crew called Cloud9 after an impromptu dance battle with their leader in true Step Up 2 fashion. As a result, I gained a group of friends, a new hobby, and nice amount of campus clout. I kept it up in college as well, joining Stop Motion Dance Crew. Now that I’ve graduated, I don’t dance as much as I used to, but it will always still a part of me, and I have Soulja Boy to thank for that.
I also remember going to my first middle school dance with my friends standing along the wall listening to whatever pop songs were popular in 2008. As I looked around, everyone was “dancing” and having a good time, but my attention really was on the DJ. At the time, the DJ was this high school student named Kevin with his laptop and some small turntables. Naturally, I ended up spending the majority of the party watching him. I was always envious of the way good DJs were able to control a crowd. Something about the power to make everyone move really stuck with me. So I went home, started doing research, and eventually saved up for a DJ controller.
I even went to a DJ camp in California called Camp Spin-Off to learn and improve on my skills. A few of the kids from the program are now pretty successful producers and DJs which is also crazy. In high school I was DJing parties for my high school, the Atlanta Girls School, Poetry Slams at the Woodruff Arts Center, and even the Teen Night parties at the High Museum of Art. Needless to say my hobby turned job was paying off. Literally. And I carried DJing with me into college and now life post-grad, but it has turned back into a hobby instead of a job for me. And enjoy it so much more that way with me, my turntables and an empty apartment for me to just enjoy the music.
Throughout high school, it was pretty obvious that hip hop was playing a more foundational role in my life than my parents were planning on. And with that came the all the questions of the misogyny, violence, and everything else bad about rap music. “Why do you listen to that stuff? Why do they have to use that language?” My dad would always shake his head and walk off when he heard rap music blasting from my room. And every time he left, I always wished he’d stay so I could break all his preconceived notions in one ten minute session.
If you’re new to rap music, poetry, music theory, or any of their respective terminology, I’d like to start you off with this amazing crash course video from Vox. This is my video of choice when I have to explain to people why I love rap music and take it so seriously:
A quick reminder that hip hop is NOT a genre of music. Hip Hop is the encompassing culture, rap is the genre of music.
Back to the whole “hip hop old head” part: I am mesmerized by good lyrical rap. I figure I’d mention this pretty early on because if I want to be writing about music I love (mainly rap), you should understand my preferences. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love listening to trap and party rap just as much as the next person, but I’d much rather listen to something that makes me think. I’d much rather listen through Lupe Fiasco’s entire discography than whatever is playing in Spotify’s “Rap Caviar” playlist. But again that’s my personal preference, and I suspect if you pull up my listening history, you’ll see what I mean. I’m going to write a whole separate post about why I love rap specifically, but these are my beginnings, and I wanted to share them as we go along in our journey into whatever Loc’d and Coded turns into.
