The message

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As hip-hop celebrates its 50th anniversary, an event held at World Café Live last Friday looked at the impact the art form has had during that time.

ABOVE PHOTO: From (l-r) Tiffany Bacon, spoken word artist Ursula Rucker, Philadelphia emcee Queen Jo, singer Tylan, radio personality and co-founder of Black Music Month Dyana Williams and graffiti artist Christian “Tameartz” Rodriguez were among the participants in “Message In The Music: Black Music As A Soundtrack To Inspire or Incite” last Friday at World Cafe Live.  (Photo courtesy: Chris Murray)

By Denise Clay-Murray

If you’re in your 50s, you haven’t known a world without hip-hop.

The art form, which includes art and dance as well as music, has become internationally ubiquitous. Hip-hop has been used in everything from movies and advertising, and will get the “Antiques Roadshow” treatment later this summer on A&E with a show that will help track down the art form’s treasures with the help of two of its elder statesmen, Ice-T and LL Cool J.

But in the culture’s early days, more than a few people wrote it off as a passing fad. How seriously should a form of music featuring sampled music instead of instruments and featuring the stories of Black and Brown youth be taken? 

“Now everybody’s like, oh, hip hop,” said Aaron Smith, an assistant professor of Africology and African American Studies at Temple University who is also known as “the Rapping Professor.” “And I’m like, word, 90% of y’all was like, ‘This is gonna end, get a job!”

However, hip-hop had other ideas. And because of this, it has managed to not only survive, but correct the record in a lot of ways, Smith said. 

“I really think that hip hop has given so many people an understanding of the reality of history in terms of African innovation,” Smith said. “Because the way that history tells it, [culture] started in Greece, and it trickled down to everybody else. But, the reality of history is that it was Africans first, then everybody else. Hip Hop has reasserted history and put things in their proper balance.”

How hip-hop has created that balance was among the things discussed at a recent event held at World Café Live in West Philadelphia. As part of WURD Radio’s celebration of Black Music Month, the station hosted “Message In Our Music: Black Music As A Soundtrack to Inspire or Incite,” an evening featuring panel discussions, games and performances centered on hip-hop and its impact.

Hosted by WURD Radio’s creative and production director Tiffany Bacon, the panel featured Smith, Ursula Rucker, a poet whose work has been featured on albums by The Roots, Queen Jo, a female emcee who has also served as the chair of City Council’s Arts and Entertainment Task Force, Christian “Tameartz” Rodriguez, a graffiti artist, Tylan, an up and coming artist who also performed at the event, and Dyana Williams, a celebrity media strategist and longtime Philadelphia radio personality who is also one of the founders of Black Music Month.

While hip-hop was considered new to some when it started 50 years ago, it was and still is an extension of the oral tradition that has been a part of the African American community from the beginning, Williams said.

“My early recollections [of hip-hop] would have to be when I was living in Harlem as a teenager, and I heard the Last Poets for the first time,” she said. “They were like the griots [storytellers] in our community. We cannot disregard the connection between hop-hop and poetry.” 

It’s also relatable to everyone, Williams continued. 

“Why is it the number one genre in the world? Why do people in France relate to hip hop? Why do people in Brazil understand the feeling and the intention of the music?” she asked. It’s because, guess what? They got hoods in all of those places and they’re struggling in all of those places, and they fall in love in all of those places, and they have loss in all of those places. [Hip-hop] has permeated global culture in a way that is intrinsic, vital, and super real, because it is dealing with the realities of being human beings trying to navigate this thing we call life.”

It’s also about representation for those who may not have any, said Queen Jo. At a time when silencing voices seems to be the national pastime, hip-hop speaks for them, she said.

“For me, hip hop is an artistic expression for those marginalized by respectability politics,” she said “It’s like I am here, and you are going to recognize me. And I think that that’s really important to a lot of Black and Brown people.”

But to the larger community, and even some older members of Black and Brown communities, how hip-hop currently projects itself is seen as problematic. Too violent. Too sexual. Too much. 

Historical context for this belief is important, Smith said. When marginalized communities take some agency for themselves, it becomes problematic for people even when it isn’t, and nowhere is that truer than in hip-hop, he said.

“I think it’s important to contextualize things historically,” Smith said. “When I think about the genre being described as a problem, I think back to [W.E.B.] Dubois when he was talking about what does it feel like to be a problem and the Negro Problem. If I told you to go out there and I’m objectifying you or controlling your image, then it’s fine for you to wear it next to nothing. But have you decided what you’re going to wear, you take agency and control your own narrative, so now it’s an issue.”

Following the panel discussion, those in attendance were invited to participate in a trivia game centered on Black music and an open mic session that allowed those interested to show off their musical talents.

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