So, When Did You Fall in Love with Hip-Hop? [NFTW #55]

What’s good everyone? I hope we’re all doing well. This week is an interesting one and I’m excited to get into it. This week I curate thoughts by friends paying homage to the art-form that provided us with a language in a world committed to keeping us silent. Each quotation is a different person. Thank you to all my friends who provided responses. I appreciate you all. To Hip-Hop, thank you. It will always be love. Always.

So, When Did You Fall in Love with Hip-Hop?

As Hip-Hop turned a half century on Friday I thought there would be no better way to celebrate the art-form that gave so many of us language than to pay homage. I asked some friends to share their thoughts on what Hip-Hop means to them and particular songs they find themselves coming back to. Here are the responses. I’ve also made a playlist below of the songs mentioned. Without further ado, thank you Hip-Hop for your service to us these past 50 years. Here are a few reasons as to why we love you:

“Hip Hop is the actual American Dream that the people that drew up that marketing scheme never envisioned! For context NYC was amongst the most neglected and impoverished communities at the time of Hip-Hop’s inception. Even in those conditions to see kids and community members come together to have a good time by using and expressing their natural talents and elements that has influenced the entire world is still beyond belief. It reminds us of our power, allowing us to finally live in our true form that we had to hide for so long. The artform certainly has its phases and stages well noted in Common’s classic I used to love HER where the legendary MC describes his evolving relationship with Hip-Hop through the lens of a tumultuous relationship with a woman. Still through the ups and downs of industry pitfalls the love prevails. If Nas and Lauryn Hill ruled the world I’m sure we wouldn’t witness such ills but we have to keep spreading the love to get the message!

If I ruled the world represents the possibilities of where we could take our culture if we stay together. The message served as the point where Hip Hop realized its true power from just partying to storytelling and creating the change we desperately needed amongst ourselves, and not waiting for help from the same folks that caused these nearly uninhabitable conditions. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five set the tone that legendary MC’s like Pac, Jay-Z, Nas, and Biggie followed to tell our stories and see ourselves in a world that rarely ever does. Happy Birthday to Hip-Hop, here’s to an incredible next 50!” - D

“I wouldn’t even say I interact with Hip Hop as an art form, it was literally my equivalent of books and a starting point for a lot things I know about including Christianity (Killah Priest - B.I.B.L.E on Wu Tangs album), wider variations of music (Kool G Rap - Blowin Up In The World), morals and code, and wealth (Nipsey and ownership). It’s literally like the first brush I used to paint a picture of the world outside of my immediate environment.” - T

“When I think of why hip-hop/rap is an important art form, the thing that jumps out at the forefront is ‘dialogue’, particularly for people who look like me. Having a place where you can air out your thoughts, scribe your living and sometimes generate conversation from that, whether on the mic or in everyday life, is something that’s always resonated with me. Saying this, some of the more impactful songs I wanna highlight are Neighbourhood by DC, Wings by Little Simz and The Art of Peer Pressure by Kendrick Lamar.” - Y

“Recently, I’ve leaned on hip-hop for humour. Hip-hop’s spirit has always been inseparable from comedy, and I find myself returning to the Detroit rapper for their punchline-forward, almost stand-up approach. It takes me back to the punchline rap era, where I’d drive my cousins crazy rewinding Lil Wayne bars over and over again trying to catch every little double entendre. For a song - I’d go with Dagrin -Democracy. It’s a bit of a left turn as it’s a Yoruba rap song but it’s genuinely the funniest, (and most poignant) piece of hiphop I’ve ever heard.” - H

“Hip-Hop is important to me because it’s the starting point for my love affair with music. I can’t pinpoint exactly why it resonated so much with me from a young age but hearing Kanye’s passion as he rapped Through The Wire got to me. His mumbled bars over the looped emotive Chaka Khan sample tugged on my heartstrings in a way I couldn’t truly identify and I was hooked. As I’ve grown older and developed a greater appreciation for writing and literature, I’ve also developed a much deeper respect for the craft of hip-hop. The genre is defined by elite wordplay from lyrical technicians that treat the English language like a tool to achieve goals only they can see through the production. Many rappers are truly brilliant at what they do and I feel privileged to be in an era where these artists are pushing the envelope further than ever.Hip-hop has been a companion to me over the years and a north star as I’ve pursued my own creative dreams. I’m grateful for all the moments in my life that have been soundtracked by artists like Lil Wayne, Jay Z, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Lauryn Hill, Mac Miller, and so many more. I can’t wait to see where things go over the next 50 years. A Milli - Lil Wayne; I Serve The Base - Future; Momma - Kendrick Lamar ; Captain Hook - Megan Thee Stallion ; Can’t Tell Me Nothing - Kanye West” - S

“When I think about why Hip-Hop is especially important to me, I can’t help but immediately think of its inextricable link to class and that is ultimately my first identifier to the genre. I didn’t appreciate that link in its fullness until I became conscious of how many parallels I could draw between where Hip-Hop was birthed (Bronx, New York) and my own home in London (and that’s probably why I think of New York as London’s distant cousin in many respects). For that reason, there is a bilateral understanding between us, I understand Hip-Hop, and it understands me, in many ways it reassures me.

I find this part hard to articulate about Hip-Hop, but it carries an effortless air to it and I think that largely stems from its authentic roots. We see this live in action in for example Mos Def’s Power Move freestyle in 1992, or Biggie’s famous street corner Brooklyn freestyle. I think its this smoothness and effortless nature of Hip-Hop that allows it to casually melt into other genres like Soul, Jazz or R&B. Some of my introductions to Hip-Hop have therefore been soft intros (e.g. Joe’s collab with both G-Unit and Nas) which has given me a wider appreciation on how the genre can be both fluid and equally distinctive.” - B

“Without getting too sentimental, I grew up listening to my Dad’s CD’s. He had so many albums from so many different artists - Eric B & Rakim, MJB’s - Whats the 411 and the first hip hop artist to get a diamond album, MC Hammer! I grew up rummaging through his crazy CD collection and on reflection I’ve noticed a few things. The obvious, hip hop allowed me to connect with my Dad, for which I’m forever grateful for. But he also had a healthy collection of black female hip hop artists too. I didn’t know it but listening to Queen Latifah or MJB really shaped who I’ve become, it was normal for me to expect women that look like me to make amazing music.

Hip Hop is also the genre of music that taught me to play with my words. I enjoyed ‘play’ in other respects e.g my gameboy advance sp, football, beyblade, yugioh but listening to hip hop and even more importantly reading the lyrics that were in the front covers of the CD’s taught me that I can also play with my words. That changed my entire life. I developed this deep relationship with rap, poetry, song writing that also really helped expand my vocabulary. Not just my vocabulary but my art direction too, I deeply respected punchlines, similes & metaphors and so now that bleeds into my art direction, I often see how things look like other things/ refer to other things.” - D

Until next week. Peace.