Nelson George:
“I’ve mentioned that we now think of “old” and “new” schools of rappers and rap enthusiasts. What today is called “the old school” are the founding fathers, so to speak-a loose community of energetic, creative, and rather naïve young people from the Bronx and upper Manhattan who reached adolescence in the ‘70s. Naïve is the key and perhaps unexpected adjective in describing this crew, yet I think it is essential. I’m not simply saying they were naïve about money. That’s a trait they shared with nearly every young musician I’ve ever met (and no amount of much touted “street knowledge” ever protects them from rip-offs).
By naïve, I mean the spirit of open openhearted innocence that created hip hop culture. The idea of parties in parks and community centers, which is celebrated nostalgically as the true essence of hip hop, means that money was not a goal. None of the three original DJs-Herc, Flash, Bambaataa-expected anything from the music but local fame, respect in the neighborhood, and the modest fees from the parties given at uptown clubs or the odd midtown ballroom. They may have pocketed a couple of hundred bucks here or there but none thought these gigs would make them millionaires. Like graffiti writers and break dancers, the old-school DJ, and those that quickly followed their lead, did it because it felt good and because they could.
For the graffiti artists, tagging walls wasn’t about mimicking art school technique or being self-consciously postmodern. For the Hispanic breakers, it wasn’t about simply departing from the traditions of Latin social dancing with its rigorous turns and upright posture. For DJs, break spinning wasn’t come departure from the norms of soul music. For all these old-schoolers it was an accidental, offhand discovery of a way to distinguish themselves in a very direct, self-contained, and totally controllable way. They needed simple tools to make their art and they made their own decisions about what made it good. Hip hop was not a mass market concept. It was not a career move.
SOURCE: Hip Hop America by Nelson George
Hip Hop America
by Nelson George
$11.16
