Envision the political turmoil of 1968. Now place yourself in the midst of the Bronx. Schools are closed, kids are congregating in the streets and most white people have moved out of the neighborhood. What is left in this abandoned part of New York are burning buildings and youth who want their voices to be heard.
At this tumultuous time, as described by hip-hop journalist and activist Jeff Chang in his book "Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation," hip-hop emerged.
Last Thursday, Chang spoke to a full audience in Pearson 104 about his book, describing his work as a "love letter to hip-hop."
"I grew up like every other kid, heard 'Rapper's Delight' for the first time and went bananas," Chan said of his first experience with hip-hop.
The genre's influence on Chang and others is far-reaching. According to Chang, "Hip-hop is part of our identity. It determines everything from what shoes we wear to whom we vote for - it defines us."
Hip-hop's intriguing history does much to explain its pervasive influence on trends and individual identity today, Chang said. After World War II, in an attempt to remake New York City, urban planner Robert Moses organized the movement of poor people into the Bronx and Brooklyn. Projects of up to 2,000 units arose in these areas, and with them came the development of gangs.
One gang composed solely of African Americans, the Black Spades, got in a fight with the area's white gangs and took over the district. On the other side of the river, the leading gang was the Savage Skulls, a Latino gang. By 1971, violence between these gangs reached its peak; and both youth and interracial violence took their toll on the New York community.
Soon, however, the youth themselves began to work for peace, and with their attempt to reconcile came the development of a new social and musical culture. After Cornell Benjamin, the young leader of the African American gang the Ghetto Brothers, was beaten to death while trying to intervene in a fight, local gangs created the Gang Peace Treaty in a famous 1971 meeting.
Not only did this new peace bring social intermingling through inter-gang parties, but it also brought a new wave of musical styles. At a party in the West Bronx, DJ Cool Hurk set the trend in spinning new and lively beats. Following in Hurk's footsteps, Afrika Bambaataa formed Zulu Nation and their music gained instant popularity among New York youth.
At this point, hip-hop began to cross racial and ethnic boundaries. But Chang asserted that "hip-hop is a black thing. You can't separate hip-hop from blackness and the black experience."
Chang sees hip-hop as an eclectic mix of the musical traditions brought to America from Africa, bringing many of the traditional sounds together into new and exciting musical combinations.
Though these musical developments were important, style was even more vital to the development of hip-hop. "Style was key in driving the hip-hop generation," Chang said. "It became a form of redemption for these abandoned young people."
One stylistic element of hip-hop resulted in the emergence of graffiti as an art form. Legal forces, however, viewed graffiti as a challenge to authority. Police responses in an attempt to stop the proliferation of hip-hop culture became extreme: Proposition 21 made graffiti writing a felony, and certain 1980s laws even banned break dancing.
Chang also discussed how racial profiling by law enforcement - in which officers labeled the "typical" graffiti criminal as "young, black, male and carrying a large backpack" - continues today with more general racial profiling. Chang described this phenomenon as a "politics of containment" attempting to limit the scope of hip-hop culture.
This connection to law and politics has led the way to a new wave of hip-hop activism. At the 2004 National Hip-Hop Political Convention, the "League of Pissed-Off Voters" was formed, eventually obtaining 70 chapters and registering over 10,000 voters. Currently, organizations dealing with hip-hop culture, such as the nonprofit "Project: Think Different" located in Boston, attempt to use hip-hop as a means of creating positive social change.
"With the immediate availability of media messages, and the expansion of online communication, the hip-hop generation really has the capability to amplify their messages to an international audience," said Cara Powers, the media literacy coordinator at Project: Think Different, an organization that works with artists and the community to disseminate positive messages through various forms of media.
"It is important that artists and activists know how powerful a tool our media landscape is and learn how to use it to really bring hip hop back to its positive roots," Powers said.
Chang explained how dismal socioeconomic conditions in countries such as France, Cuba, Korea and the Philippines, as well as in the American response to Hurricane Katrina, will affect the future of political hip-hop.
"The music is going to start representing inter-suburban 'nowheres' a lot more," he said. "Art is supposed to represent a range of emotions."
But what of hip-hop's negative image and its reputation for containing violent and misogynistic lyrics? Sophomore Doug Foote said that non-mainstream artists defy the violent stereotype.
"Hip hop has gained a bad name, but artists like Common show hip hop's quality," Foote said.
Chang also asserted during his presentation that the wealth of talented hip-hop artists today is innumerable.
"The way hip-hop is lived and practiced is much more diverse than what we see on ClearChannel," he said.
