King lecture: 'hip hop' history lesson

By BRENT CUNNINGHAM
Reporter Staff

Musician KRS-ONE, speaking last Friday in the Center for the Arts, outlined his version of what he called "hip-hop culture," including its roots, its recent history and its guiding philosophy. He argued that "hip hop," which is sometimes taken to mean "rap music," ought to include graffiti art, a dance style called "breakin,'" and the language, fashion and culture of the "street."

Also known as Kris Parker, KRS-ONE delivered his remarks as the keynote speech of the 22nd annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Commemoration. In Parker's view, hip hop stepped into the cultural void that was created in the 1970s when the world finally lost trust in "British commercialism." Unlike the art and music of commercialism, he contended, "the basic psychology of hip hop is to express yourself first, and then explain. If you try to explain what you're doing before you do it, you'll never do it."

Parker's speech was preceded by "Apollo Night," a talent show put on by the UB Black Student Union that featured dancers, deejays and rappers. Rapping, Parker later commented, is actually the commercial term for "M.C.ing," just as "break dancing" is the commercial term for "breakin." These "street language" definitions, Parker holds, are not just cosmetic alterations, but a key component in what he calls "hip-hop consciousness."

According to Parker, hip-hop consciousness did not begin when the term first appeared in the early 1970s. Rather, Parker sees a kindred spirit between graffiti art and the prehistoric cave paintings of North Africa, between breakin' and 16th-century Angolan martial arts, and between rap artists and the "griots" and "djelees" who combined speech with music in ancient Mali, Ghana and Songhay.

"In general," said Parker, "hip hop is the transformation of subjects and objects to fit your mentality. But there's always the opposing force that says, 'No, I don't care how you think. If you want to survive in this society, you have to think the way we think,' which is the mainstream, popular culture's way of thinking."

The rise of the British Empire, in Parker's view, represents the first systematic repression of the expressive "forces of hip hop." According to this view, "cracks" only began to appear in British colonialism, and hence British commercialism, sometime in the 19th century. These cracks, said Parker, include World War I, the collapse of the banking system during the Great Depression, World War II and the dropping of the atomic bomb, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the rise of New York as the center of world power.

For Parker, the roots of the new consciousness can be located in the ethnic heterogeneity of 1970s New York City. Interactions between African-American New Yorkers and new immigrants from China, the Caribbean, Europe and Latin America led to the development of "a whole new economic system. It started with our food, our clothes, and our artistic expression. When British commercialism broke down," added Parker, "the first place it broke down was in New York. This is why hip hop began in New York."

As a youth in the Bronx during the 1970s, Parker recalled watching Bruce Lee movies, eating Chinese and Italian food, "bombing" trains with graffiti and listening to DJ Kool Herc play records by James Brown or Sly and the Family Stone. The "master of ceremonies," who at first would only encourage the crowd as they danced, began to talk more freely, sometimes making rhymes. Eventually, the "M.C." would become today's rap musicians.

From Parker's perspective, hip-hop culture exploded in New York between 1975 and 1979. Breakin', "bombing" trains or buses, and going to listen to deejays and M.C.s became a fundamental part of New York street life. Then, in 1979, an African-American woman named Sylvia Robinson founded Sugar Hill Records in Englewood, N.J., and put out "Rappers Delight," the first rap album.

"To show you how fast this record was put together," said Parker, "the group didn't even have a name. She got three guys together and said, 'Look, say these rhymes.' They called themselves the Sugar Hill Gang and 'Rapper's Delight' went on to sell like 5 million records."

Later, Parker himself would release strong-selling rap albums like "Crack Attack," "Criminal Minded" and "Edutainment." Rap, he pointed out, is now the No. 1 selling music in the world and the fastest growing music industry in the world.

Although Robinson did not retain control of the rap phenomenon, Parker concluded, hip hop as a consciousness is winning. "We have won against the slave master," he said "but our parents can't see it yet. That whole era of slave and slave master is disappearing before your very eyes. We don't need to feel sorry for those that choose to live in the slave era, because the consciousness among the youth is moving toward unity, higher intelligence and higher knowledge."

Parker, who has been criticized for doing advertisements for Coca-Cola, implied that part of that "higher knowledge" might include thinking of corporate life as only another culture. Although in the past he had picketed Nike, Parker said he later realized how many African-American executives were "ruling" in the Nike and Coca-Cola organizations.

"The point here is self-expression, self-creation in the face of oppression," he said. "Don't be afraid of other cultures. Embrace them; find out what they're about."