Hip-Hop

I loved the McLeod piece! I think I was about eight-years-old when my grandparents took me to my first block party. They lived in Queens and we stayed with them on weekends. I remember how cool it was to ride my Big Wheel in the middle of the street. I must have been about seventeen when I started “clubbing.” In those days (as if that were forever ago), the place was not as important as who the DJ was. That was about the time when Hip-Hop was going mainstream and some DJs had a huge following.

Hip-Hop always seemed to be original to me. My parents were “flower children,” my grandfather was a Jazz enthusiast, and my other grandfather was a violinist. I was exposed to an array of genres and did recognize that there were glimmers of these genres in Hip-Hop, but it was still a completely different sound. I can see the shady area of gray when McLeod discusses issues of copyrights and sampling. I also saw that the more popular Hip-Hop became and the more money Hip-Hop artists made, the more pressing the issue of ownership became. I agree with the cultural aspects of McLeod’s argument, but I also feel that Hip-Hop was not taken seriously in the beginning; at the very least not by the record industry. I think the fans pushed the importance of Hip-Hop making it clearly evident that it was profitable. The clubs were always packed!

I continued to have a steady diet of block parties while growing up in Brooklyn. I never imagined that history was being made right in front of my eyes (and ears). Like neighborhood Pizzerias and Bodegas on every corner, the smells of family owned Bakeries, and the even blend of Menorahs and Christmas Trees during the holidays; Hip-Hop was part of growing up in the city.