State Of The Hip-Hop Union 2023

5,000 Words for 50 Years

On August 11th 1973, DJ Kool Herc hosted a party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, The Bronx, NY. If you’re reading this, you probably have an idea of what happens next.

What happened next, to put simply, was a revolution in more ways than one. And this year will mark 50 years since that seminal moment. For someone that is half that number in age, 50 years is a crazy number to comprehend. So much has happened between then and now.

The year of 2023 will be a year marked down for Hip-Hop and all it’s children, cousins and parents to look at it with love, appreciation, reflection; criticism, uncomfortable conversations and lessons for the future.

That’s what I hope to do with this essay: Hip-Hop, through the eyes of somebody who owes everything to it. Alternatively, if you would like to consume this essay in audio, I will link my “What’s Good?” Long Read of this here. Either way, I thank you for giving your time.

Let’s begin.

1. The Prelude — Roots

It’s overwhelming thinking about the roots Hip-Hop has. You hear it through the music of course, but you also see it in the films, the TV shows and the people that take Hip-Hop with them everywhere they go. But lets think about the roots for a moment. I have been putting thought into the Black Arts Movement recently which had its moment during the 60s/70s. Its fascinating looking at something that promoted Black art, decentring the white gaze and, in the words of Larry Neal, exist as the “aesthetic and spiritual sister of Black Power”.

The intersection between the Black Arts Movement and the birth of Hip-Hop can’t be ignored. Hip-Hop was birthed when landlords were burning homes down to get compensation for ‘unprofitable assets’; driving the poor out by cutting off food & water. How can something as joyous as baby Hip-Hop — which was at that point simply a new way to party for those that couldn’t afford to get into discos — be built from the rubble of such tumult?

The Black Arts Movement was also born out of pain, with the likes of Amiri Bakara, Audre Lorde, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni and more; creating spaces for the Black poets, the Black intellectuals and Black artists to express themselves in the wake of the Civil Rights era. In that roughly 10 year space, they changed the landscape of what was possible.

Oh. And guess what else came in the 70s? Blaxploitation films. Coincidence?

With this scope, you can see Hip-Hop (and most things Black people have pioneered) as a metaphor for the experience of formerly stolen children of Africa: Driven out, put through the worst humanity has inflicted upon itself… And still managed to survive and find joy in life.

When you think about it, Hip-Hop couldn’t have started anywhere else but The Bronx.

It wouldn’t be a 5th Element essay if I didn’t recognise one time for the Five Elements: Rap didn’t start with the likes of Melle Mel & Grandmaster Caz. It started with the Griots in Africa. Roots. Graffiti existed before Hip-Hop with roots of it’s own, going all the way back to Ancient Rome & Greece. The hums of Blues was the analogue to the beats that are created digitally now; roots. Knowledge, well, c’mon now.

Only breaking was the true child of Hip-Hop, but I’m sure there are dance historians that can tell me there’s roots in there as well.

Look below Hip-Hop and all you will see, is roots. It’s a beautiful thing…

2. The Beginning — A Means To An End

If you asked me what moment in time I would go back to experience, that party in 1520 Sedgwick Avenue would be one of several shouts. Has there ever been one party that shifts the very tectonic plates of history like that one DJ Kool Herc hosted? I think about that a lot when meditating over how far Hip-Hop has come.

And then think about how that moment was probably seen as nothing much. It was actually because his sister thought of the idea to have her brother host so she could get some extra money for school clothes. A means to an end.

And of course, DJs existed before Hip-Hop; Kool Herc himself is Jamaican-American. Want to know what very particular style came through in the 50s, right around the time Herc was born?

Two words: Sound. System.

It was only a matter of time before the likes of Grandmaster Flash, Grand Wizzard Theodore & Marley Marl took the technical side of DJing to new heights. And with my previous chapter dedicated a lot to how movements shaped the concept of Hip-Hop, it was again only a matter of time before Afrika Bambaataa made the first Hip-Hop community: The Zulu Nation.

If you haven’t clocked it yet, this part is about the three pioneers: Herc, Flash & Bambaataa. Without these three, Hip-Hop wouldn’t be what it is. (or was, we’ll get to that later.) Hell, without the formation of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, we wouldn’t have “Hip-Hop” as a term! (RIP Cowboy)

The thing that started with no name at all, was just a means to an end back then; whether it was community building amongst the youth, technical experimentation or just shaking some ass. It was just a thing to do.

Whilst there is plenty of material out there about the birth and it’s early years, it’s hard for me to think about Hip-Hop as poetically as texts like “The Get Down” made it out. Even something like the ’77 NY Blackout, an event seared into Hip-Hop lore, is regularly contested in it’s role of Hip-Hop’s growth. And even for texts like “Wild Style” & “Beat Street”, those came out in the early 80s; do they reflect the 70s accurately?

I feel like Hip-Hop, whilst we celebrate 50 years, it’s only properly documented around, funny enough, 1977. Maybe there’s a reason for that.

3. The Juice

I’ve never been comfortable looking at Hip-Hop through a purely musical lens. I feel like it’s limiting when Hip-Hop is made of so much more than beats & bars. And I feel culprit to this as well. One of my Podcasts focuses on the music side of Hip-Hop through the prism of knowledge & learning, but maybe that’s because music is just that powerful a medium?

Either way you slice it, I personally always feel as if I’m not giving credence to the other elements & sub-elements that makes Hip-Hop the unique entity it truly is. I don’t seek to be the all-knowing God of Hip-Hop or anything, but it’s going to be a hole that I might not have the lifespan to fill. Definitely not with this essay.

But that’s the funny thing about learning: The more you learn, the more you realise that you know nothing at all.

With all that said, I feel there’s a reason the music is gassed the most. And no, it’s not (just) because of it’s power as a medium. It’s because it’s the most profitable. There are plenty of ills Hip-Hop holds, most of them are absorbed from the wider influence of society in the western world; but all of them are eclipsed by capitalism.

Going back to the early 70s for the moment and connecting it to now; isn’t a little sad that our pioneers don’t get a slice of any of the riches we see now? “But Charlie” I hear you say, “how could they profit from something that didn’t even have a name back then?”. And you’re right of course. Maybe it’s just the altruist in me but I feel the likes of Grandmaster Flash deserve more than a Rock N’ Roll HOF induction.

And maybe they’re like me and never cared about the money, but that is the dichotomy of capitalism and how deeply engrained it is in our society. It just feels wrong to me that people started getting money because white people started taking interest.

But they started making music, and Hip-Hop as a music genre began to grow. Most of the artists had the wherewithal to take the other elements with them wherever they could, but that wouldn’t last very long. Graffiti still remains at the fringe, so does breakdancing (although, it’s appearance in the next Summer Olympics will be an interesting flashpoint) and even DJing has taken a backseat to the music industry complex.

I say this all as a positive. Because whilst we love the music — in a lot of ways — it’s a tainted product. I don’t see that with the others.

4. The Rarely Heard

There’s a particular sect of the New York demographic that I need to mention before I continue any further. Whilst the pioneers were African-American, the Latin population in New York had a genuine hand in the early days of Hip-Hop. Especially in the dancing realm.

It’s kind of poetic that the likes of Bad Bunny own the music world now with that special blend of Latin Trap & Reggaeton.

And its not just the Latin community that I feel don’t get the credit. I always find it weird that when looking into the history of Hip-Hop, there are practically no women mentioned until maybe Sylvia Robinson. But that’s not an issue solely sitting in Hip-Hop’s lap, is it?

At this point in time, I feel like the pioneers are rarely heard. Unless they have radio shows or talk into the IG ether, I wonder where a lot of the pre-90s legends are on the day to day. I don’t believe everyone should be on social media or trying to get airtime on Hot97 just because… But it’d be nice to see the elders of all this more often.

And one time for Hip-Hop academia. I have written on this before, but watching legends go from the studio to the lecture halls is amazing to me. Whilst I don’t seek validation from Russell Group or Ivy League Universities, it gives a roadmap for further growth in Hip-Hop academia. It puts Hip-Hop on the same pedestal as it’s siblings, where it should be.

That side of Hip-Hop will always need a shout out in my eyes…

5. Taking The Baton

When I think about the 80s & 90s — the time where Hip-Hop truly begun it’s ascent — I always spare a thought for Disco.

Disco was on top when Hip-Hop came around and started to die right as Hip-Hop was fighting with it’s older sibling R&B for supremacy. We rarely talk about these baton changes because they’re so macro, but it’s worth looking at.

Speaking of. Has there been this long a fight for cultural supremacy that R&B and Hip-Hop have been going through? Obviously R&B is much older and has multiple “Golden Ages”, but the consistent locking of horns is very interesting.

And like in other arenas — take tech for example — Hip-Hop & R&B have always taken from each other, even combined sometimes. In the similar way a lot of phones nowadays look the same, these two cultural leaders can sometimes look indistinguishable.

I’ll give you two examples: In the late 90s through the 00s, Hip-Hop started to do a lot of R&B. To the point where I would posit that Hip-Hop ran out of ideas for a while there. But on the flipside, I feel R&B in recent years were taking from Hip-Hop a lot. Especially male R&B artists; fundamentally crooning over Trap beats.

(Big up the R&B women for keeping R&B alive for me. Greatly appreciated.)

Who knows, maybe Hip-Hop will go back to the R&B well. Regardless, I think African Americans and everyone that enjoy these powerhouses are well fed on both sides and it will be these two cultural touchstones for a while longer…

6. Hip-Hop & Women

“The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.” — Malcolm X

I love this quote so much. Because the first time I read it — and every instance since — I immediately tally up the amount of hurt Black women go through.

Misogyny is a commodity in a lot of art, not just music.

And because Hip-Hop music has been built on the ability to statistically say more in any given song, EP or album, Hip-Hop is seen as the kingpin of shitting on women. Argue for or against that if you want, but it’s been well documented that Hip-Hop’s relationship with women is tense at best.

But when I say ‘tense’, I say it in how Hip-Hop sees and treats women. If it was the other way, I’d be inclined to use a softer term. But for this, I would like to speak from the lens of how Hip-Hop sees women; if you want a way more substantive critique from a woman, I recommend “Hip Hop Wars” by Professor Tricia Rose.

I am in constant wonder how women even find a place in Hip-Hop where they’re comfortable. I feel that a majority of circles, no matter how big or small, have a sect that just hate women. And that’s not solely because people are listening to Hip-Hop; as with everything, art REFLECTS society and the mechanisms of said society. But again, seems like misogyny and misogynoir are all but too prevalent.

And maybe my wonder is justified. Maybe women in Hip-Hop are never comfortable!

Whilst we have an abundance of female artists in the Hip-Hop space — maybe the most ever in this moment — there’s still this lack of respect given to women. Speak up on something that happened to you, you’re a bitch liar and will proceed to get ridiculed and/or blackballed. Shake your ass on stage, you’re a hoe and will be considered lesser.

Again, whilst this is a reflection on how society treats women and especially Black women, it boggles my mind that we can’t collectively get over this hurdle. It’s an opportunity that is consistently thrown in the bin whenever someone like Megan Thee Stallion for example speaks on her mental health or threatens the status quo.

Communities are great, sometimes life-saving & life changing when general society fails in giving someone belonging. What is Hip-Hop when we as a collective/community can’t be better for women?

Which brings me to a school of thought I have been building on for years: Actively looking for female talent in the Hip-Hop space.

Now, that might seem like a random act, but if I asked you to name as many male Hip-Hop artists as you can in 60 seconds and then name as many female Hip-Hop artists as you can in 120 seconds, do you think that you would get more female names than male? There are so many female artists out there in the Hip-Hop space that don’t get the same notoriety.

Take it from me, there are A LOT of mediocre male Hip-Hop artists that have twice the notoriety than female Hip-Hop artists who I believe can change the game, given the platform.

And what about producers? Can you even name five female Hip-Hop producers? Can you name five female producers regardless of genre?

7. He’s the DJ, I’m The Rapper

Speaking of producers & DJs…

I feel there were two significant shifts in Hip-Hop history, pertaining to the prevalence of the DJ/producer. The first was sometime in the 80s. (Maybe once “The Message” dropped?) The DJ/Producer was initially THE guy. Grandmaster Flash AND The Furious Five. DJ Jazzy Jeff AND The Fresh Prince; you see where I’m going.

Who were we talking about in the beginning of this essay? The first ‘stars’ of Hip-Hop were DJs, the people that orchestrated the party. The MC was also there of course, but in the 70s/80s, it was still understood that the DJ/Producer was the reason people went to shows.

But then there was that shift. The MCs, the rappers, started spitting bars aside from crowd controlling.

“SOMEBODY SCREEEEEEAM” was replaced with “It’s a jungle sometimes…”. The lyrics got deeper and became more valuable. The MC became first on the bill. The MC got their names — and only their names — on the albums and the DJ/producer took a back seat.

It has remained like that until the present.

So what was the second shift? The second shift was a more subtle one. For me, it happened sometime in the mid-2010s. One that has given producers more respect, but not the ascendency they once had.

Producers like Madlib & The Alchemist have been given this mythical status amongst current Hip-Hop fans. Where people want to constantly know who they’re making beats for and who they’re collaborating with. Producers now have their own fanbases! About damn time!

And whilst that is great, does it equate to being on the same level as rappers? In the places that matter? Probably not. And this jars me because as part of this shift — and I simply don’t care what you say — mainstream rappers aren’t pushing for lyrical innovation like they used to. Instead, they focused more on melody, repetition, working towards virality because that’s what the industry required.

Recognise the knowledge that the great producers have. DJ Shadow for example has an obscene record collection; over 60,000. You have to listen to all that music in order to pick something out of it. And due to the Biz Markie (RIP) sampling lawsuit of 1991, it forced producers to get smarter. So they’re putting all that time in just for a second of inspiration.

Rappers doing that?

Producers have collectively upgraded to evolve their methods, bring back sounds, update classic sounds, create new ones and be the best part of a lot of popular works, but are still behind the rappers in ascendancy? It’s simply not right.

8. Hip-Hop & Black Men

Out of all the subjects I broach in this essay, this is admittedly the freshest one. By that I mean I have built this thought whilst writing this, so this will evolve long after this drops.

Over the past year, I have been meditating on how Black men act in the Hip-Hop sphere; you could potentially upgrade this to how Black men act in the western world, but we’ll keep it to Hip-Hop.

As you can imagine, when it comes to people that are not white, its a tendency to protect your identifier; in this case it’s race. To breach intersectionality for this argument, Black men tend to protect Black men. Sometimes, Black men protect Black women! Most of the time, its disproportionate; we all have our biases.

These biases however, are crystal clear when it comes to Black men in Hip-Hop. We see this in events like the Roc Nation Brunch — which I’m sure isn’t a sausage fest — but if the only media I see is Jay, Diddy and other rich Black men in a circle, preaching “Black Capitalist” rhetoric, you can’t blame me thinking it’s just the only time its cool to have brunch as a Black man.

We protect who we feel akin to, and if you’re a Black man in Hip-Hop, best believe you’ll protect your own.

But what happens when one of them goes off the rails? I’m not even talking about the extreme, (You know who I’m talking about…) but there are those moments where a male in the Hip-Hop space does something that deserves critique but it never comes. An unnecessary subliminal to someone, for example.

What would you class that? The answer, is this undefinable category I like to call “Hip-Hop shit”; those moments in history that — when enough time passes — is simply boiled down to a trivia moment in Hip-Hop history.

And when “Hip-Hop shit” happens, most of the time, Black men — who were for better or worse — gatekeepers of “The Culture”, deem it nothing to sneeze at.

Again, this can be chalked up to patriarchy as a whole, but lets continue to zoom in.

Put on the X-Ray and we see a space where Black men are the faces of the whole thing, they see each other and take care of each other no matter what. Now before you get at me, just know that I am aware of the “white gaze” and “whiteness” and these factors do not play into anything I do.

Black people are protectionist at heart, and I get it, I am also culprit as a non-white person. But there comes a point where you have to hold your own accountable; And I feel Black men in Hip-Hop do the bare minimum when it comes down to the real shit, not just “Hip-Hop shit”.

Anti-Blackness should be zero tolerance. And yet…

9. Were — Capitalism & “The Culture”

Let’s get back to our good friend capitalism!

For years, I have been telling myself to be hopeful. To not be pessimistic about what we call “The Culture”. For YEARS — before I even got into Hip-Hop in the way I am now — I have childishly thought that people who owe their lives to Hip-Hop are the ones that would defend it to the ends of the Earth.

How stupid I was, until I woke up to this video:

I want to thank Jay-Z for pulling the mask all the way off. I have been on record criticising Jay for his dedication in being the definition of “Black Capitalism” in the US. I knew that Jay is literally married to the myth of “Black Capitalism”, but I was dumbfounded when watching that video above.

I’ve done a 15 minute monologue on what Jay said, so I will link it here and zoom out to the bigger picture.

“Black Capitalism” is bullshit, plain & simple. The concept of which is built on white supremacy. So when you participate in capitalism, and you’re not white, best believe even if you become the likes of Jay, Dre or Diddy, you had to fuck some people over along the way.

And ladies & gentlemen WHO do you think the likes of Jay, Dre or Diddy had to fuck over to get to the top? The suits? Nope.

In fact, the suits benefit from whatever the Black billionaires/millionaires get. You know who Jay-Z is, do you know who Stephen Cooper is? Why do you think that is?

I mentioned capitalism briefly in an earlier section of the essay and I want to return to that briefly. Because I believe the likes of Diddy & Jay failed Hip-Hop.

The 80s and 90s were pivotal in countless ways, a lot of them positive, but the biggest thing I believe affected Hip-Hop was the willingness to hand everything over to capitalism. It was bound to happen, to have a movement capitulate to a core tenet of America. But the ease of which it happened was — in hindsight — really jarring.

And because of this, there was an organic element to Hip-Hop music that was devalued somewhat. And like I say in the monologue, whilst I believe Hip-Hop has withered in strength, it’s not dead like Nas famously declared. Because there will always be less Jay-Zs than someone like me.

But I’m a broke boy so why listen to me?

With all that said, what is “The Culture”, really? Is it a community? Is it an umbrella term for things that Black people mess with? Because I could make a case that my “culture” is different from Jay’s. Hell, it’s different from many people, regardless of the wealth intersection I’ve been using. Is my “culture” the same as a Hip-Hop fan from Memphis? Or Nigeria?

I believe “The Culture” is one of those things that is purely subjective now; gutted of meaning due to social media. Gatekeeping — something I feel can be a net positive in small doses — is impossible to do now. And like with everything within the prism of social media, that can be a great thing and the worst thing ever…

10. Worldwide

Going back to things that break my brain trying to think about it…

A few months ago, my pops put me onto — I shit you not — Japanese Dub Reggae. And it’s great! And it got me thinking about how interconnected things are when it comes to culture. The way Hip-Hop has grown into an international phenomena, embraced by many, is outstanding to think about.

I actually haven’t gauged what people think about Breakdancing being included in the Paris 2024 Olympics. Whilst it is clearly a ploy to get a younger audience, (echoing the inclusion of Skateboarding in Tokyo 2020) I really hope it becomes a staple on the world stage. The only dancing that is in The Olympics is within the disciplines of Gymnastics, Swimming and Ice Skating.

To have Breakdancing, a child of Hip-Hop, in The Olympics, warms my heart.

Something I haven’t mentioned yet is fashion. Partly because I don’t traffic too much into fashion but it is fascinating seeing places like K-Pop base some of their fashion trends over the decades on Hip-Hop.

And you may not delve past whatever is in the US, but trust me that there are communities building off the Hip-Hop blueprint. You know Latin Trap, go deeper. Look at Hip-Hop in the UK, France, Germany, Africa, Brazil, The Far East.

And I’m saying this for myself also. We see language and understanding the native tongue — whatever it may be — as a hurdle. But why can’t we just feel it? If someone is speaking Portuguese on a DJ Premier beat, you’re not going to give it a go?

Hip-Hop is a universal feeling and we all have our unique connection to it. Whether it’s through artists, graffiti, dance, fashion, education or visual arts. All of those things can be shared on a global table…

11. The Future

So what is next for Hip-Hop?

In my eyes, a majority of it depends on how people decide to move forward as a collective. Now, that collective could be many of the intersections I have mentioned: Female artists, producers, “Black Capitalists”, the international community; or maybe it’s another.

Maybe it’ll get so bad that I just decide to embrace the new era of UK Hip-Hop and put all my energy into making sure we don’t make the same mistakes that our heroes in the US did. That we don’t get caught up in the industry and lose “the essence”. A great indicator for me is how burgeoning UK-based communities regularly lift each other up. UK Jazz, R&B & Soul regularly mixing with each other and the UK Hip-Hop scene is literally and figuratively, music to my ears.

I always wished the Jazz legends of yesteryear embraced Hip-Hop quicker. Same with the R&B legends. Going back to that family tree in the beginning. Whilst the roots are there, people hesitate to join them properly. Instead they float in the wind, maybe knocking into each other now and again through a one-time collaboration.

Yes, I regularly worry about the biggest names and their intentions; hijacking “The Culture” and all it’s hallmarks just so it completes a bar in a verse about them selling out to a concept rooted in white supremacy.

Whilst I think about the notable ills such as the many personalities & “influencers” that bastardise Hip-Hop culture and put spotlights on the grimy side of the game (not for the sake of journalistic want-to, of course) it is always desirable to zoom out from that arena.

They’re not the only people in this. This is a community of hundreds of millions across the world.

I’d like to bookend this essay — predictably — with a word on The 5th Element of Hip-Hop: Knowledge.

Everything I have written about in this essay, I learned by myself. The figures I love, the figures I don’t; historical milestones, all of it.

The older I get, the more I realise that state education is merely a minimum requirement to life. (Still needs to be overhauled though…) Teach you the basics and YOU have to decide what you want to go deeper on.

No matter how much you loved or hated school, we are always students. You are always learning, whether you want to or not. I call myself a Hip-Hop student because Hip-Hop caters to my tastes. Not everything has to be in a textbook. Get out there, discover for yourself. Read! Unlike ‘you know who’ and Jay. (allegedly)

The more people that do that, the better the future of Hip-Hop will be. To quote my DITD co-host Ben:

Knowledge is an innate part of Hip-Hop. It has to be there. Without it, Hip-Hop doesn’t exist. Because it’s a culture, and culture has a history. And to understand history, you need knowledge of it. So to be a true part of Hip-Hop culture, you need knowledge.

Epilogue — She

She was born on August 11th 1973. In the Boogie Down Bronx, Morris Heights. A home birth. 1520 Sedgwick Avenue.

At that time, people thought she wasn’t going to become much. Be one of the many disenfranchised youth of the time. That she’ll fade into the background when time gets a hold of her.

But with the teachings from her parents & siblings, she instead became a phenomenon that nobody that was present at her birth could’ve imagined.

She became a revolutionary; creating, innovating, changing the game.

She took a while to find her feet in the world, but after a blackout in her city, she made her move. And after that night, everybody started to know her name.

Since then, she travelled to all five Boroughs of New York; to the Midwest, the West Coast, the “dirrty Souf”. She has experienced the good and the bad. She was there to shout “Fuck The Police”, she was there to learn “The Breaks”, to “Know The Ledge”. She preached for U.N.I.T.Y. And, of course, to “Back That Azz Up”.

She’s a fashion statement, rocking the Adidas Superstars, Air Jordan 1’s, Converse All-Stars, Puma Suede, Air Max 95’s & Air Force 1’s. Bucket hats, tracksuits, sometimes, nothing at all.

She’s influenced change, from decriminalising weed, to electing a US President.

She’s done a lot of good, but unfortunately people have taken advantage of her nature. Perpetuating negative stereotypes in her name, commercialising her message, turning it into dollars & pounds, binary code, streaming algorithms. Hollowing her very being and diluting her essence.

Through all the abuse and hurt, she also had beautiful moments of love, joy, positivity. Motivation as well as anger.

Through all her experiences, she became stronger, she told Simon to “get the fuck up!” She told the crowd to “Stop, drop, shut it down open up shop!”.

She inspired creators to use her blueprint to create their own Magnum Opus. And they have indebted their lives to her because of that.

How can I speak on this? Because she did the same to me, seven years ago. She taught me that we don’t stop learning when you leave school. That knowledge is power. That you can always do better. That experiences are the best form of possession. She’s the reason I write, she’s the reason I persist to achieve. She’s the reason I’m here, right now, doing all the things I love on a day-to-day basis.

If you haven’t gathered already. She’s not a she, she isn’t even human.

She’s an essence, a culture, a sound, a lifestyle, an educator, a carer, a life saver, a blast to be around; recognised and loved worldwide, including this room tonight. She’s a sister, mother and grandmother.

The lyrics, the beat, the paint on the wall, the energy that make us jump off the ground… And the academic.

Her name? Her name, is Hip-Hop.

Happy 50th.