ABSTRACT
To me, hip-hop says, “Come as you are.” We are a family. It ain’t about security. It ain’t about bling-bling. It ain’t about how much your gun can shoot. It ain’t about $200 sneakers. It is not about me being better than you or you being better than me. It’s about you and me, connecting one to one. Th at’s why it has universal appeal. It has given young people a way to understand their world, whether they are from the suburbs or the city or wherever.—DJ Kool Herc (Chang, 2005, p. xi)
DJ Kool Herc, one of the originators of hip-hop (Chang, 2005; Rose, 1994), might seem overly optimistic about the meaning and potential of this phenomenon that has indelibly shaped the popular cultural landscape for the past 30 years. Despite the negative ways that hip-hop styles and activities are characterized in the public discourse of mainstream media (Koza, 1994), this cultural movement has many attributes that bring youth together in positive ways. Herc’s claim that hip-hop “has given young people a way to understand [and we add, participate in] their world” (Chang, 2005, p. xi) is central to the focus of this chapter. Th ese considerations framed our research on the local manifestations of hip-hop culture in the Bay Area of Northern California, a region long known as the home of major Black activists who used their poetry and performance to advance the civil rights movement. Moreover, this area holds a central place in the history of jazz and maintains strong patterns of apprenticeship by young aspirants to well-known fi gures. Th e region is also home to some of the earliest spokespersons for nation rap and to the resistance to commercialization of rap and hip-hop by Hollywood fi lmmakers and music companies. Critical also within the history of this geographic locale is the expectation that writing, slamming, rapping, and performing “the word” has strong potential for infl uence well beyond the region.
