Photo from KQED
This year marks half a century since the recognized birth of Hip Hop. The Bay Area often gets overlooked in their contributions to the growing genre, but KQED is putting a halt with a year-long exploration of the Bay’s hip hop history in the multimedia project, That’s My Word. The project’s title comes from Oakland Hyphy-innovator Keak da Sneak. This history includes interviews, playlists, photo galleries, podcasts and live events throughout 2023.
One of the first project-articles shared, journalist Eric Arnold shows us how the Bay Area was hip-hop before there was hip-hop. Arnold makes the connection through Africa Bambaataa’s profile on the Village Voice. The profile notes two cultural influences for the hip hop pioneer were, the Black Panther Party and Sly and the Family Stone. These are two important groups that originate in the Bay Area and contribute to national culture. Bambaataa is an origin point to the Native Tongues collective, which included the Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, and a Tribe Called Quest. That lineage is connected to many Los Angeles artists like People Under the Stairs, The Pharcyde, Alchemist, and Blu. This month, recognition is given to two important people from the lineage, De La Soul’s David “Trugoy” Jolicoeur and Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P Newton. Trugoy passed on February 12th, and February 17th would have been Huey P. Newton’s 81st birthday.
Another important recognition this month is the 5-year anniversary of Nipsey Hussle’s acclaimed debut album, Victory Lap. One of the first interviews from the Crenshaw artist was with Dave “Davey D” Cook, at a financial literacy conference in New York. Davey is a journalist, activist, DJ, MC, and currently a music-history professor at San Francisco State. In the exploration, we learn more about Davey in the podcast Rightnowish. In the 80s, Davey played a role in introducing hip hop to many in the Bay through events he organized as a student at UC Berkeley. One of the events on UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza was “The Day In Hip Hop” in October 1984. The Day included dancers, rappers, DJs, and Davey’s infamous one-sheeter explaining what hip hop was.
During my time as a student at UC Berkeley, I was able to see the continuing legacy of D’s events on campus. Many established artists came to perform at Cal such as Kehlani, Rico Nasty, and Freddie Gibbs. Sproul Plaza continued to be used as a platform for rising artists like Caleborate, Rexx Life Raj, and Inglewood’s AJ, the One.
Learn more about the Bay Area’s hip hop timeline from Sly and the Family Stone to the hyphy movement at bayareahiphop.com.