Can't Stop Won't Stop (Young Adult Edition): A Hip-Hop History

Youth around the world adopted hip-hop in much the same way that Black and brown kids of New York did; it was a way for them to announce their presence and be heard as well as to express how they felt about the political and economic changes happening around them. Brad Jordan from Houston was inspired by Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys, and he and his friends became fully absorbed into hip-hop. He began beatboxing, DJing, and recording mixtapes, eventually starting the group the Geto Boys and going by the name Scarface. He understood that there were connections to be made with youth across America who were experiencing the same problems he was. Cities around the country bred their own unique styles of hip-hop out of their struggles, and everyone had a story to tell.

In Miami, immigration from the Caribbean meant that people from Central and South America began to populate the city in large numbers, making it a largely Latin city. It became a cocaine trade hub, and police brutality skyrocketed in the city with several incidents coming to light and police being acquitted of charges. These incidents caused riots that lasted four days in the Black neighborhoods. While all this was going on, the youth were immersing themselves in music comparable to New York and Los Angeles. DJs threw parties on street corners and in clubs, got played in the radio, and the music produced had a heavy Latin influence. “Planet Rock” resonated with the Miami crowd. Luther Campbell began an event hosting crew called Pac Jam, which hosted Run-DMC, among others. Deep bass prevailed in Miami, new dances were being invented at the Pac Jam parties, and this Miami Bass put Southern rap on the hip-hop map.

In New York, rap radio shows started appearing and Queens earned its place on the hip-hop scene when Lolita Shanté Gooden and her partner Marlon “Marley Marl” Williams recorded a record together. Shanté would rap while Marlon DJed, and she had no fear or shame about who she was. At age 14 “only the boldest and the dumbest would attempt to test her” (92). She won her reputation in rap battles at the local group home where she had spent time at age 12. The album was a concept in which Shanté played the titular character of the song “Roxanne,” which was the B-side of an album put out by a group called UTFO. UTFO had snubbed Marley when he booked them for a charity show, so he had Shanté trash-talk each member of UTFO as Roxanne. It was recorded in a single 7-minute take. She was asked to clean up her song as part of a copyright infringement suit settlement with UTFO’s label, but it became a huge hit, and copycat records appeared left and right. Marley “used a sampler to repeat and pitch up and down vocal snippets” (95) and produce unique sounds. His approach to hip-hop helped transform its style again in 1986 and encouraged rappers to produce more intricate rhymes.

In Miami and Los Angeles, the cocaine trade was booming and crack cocaine was invented and mass-produced for sale in poor communities, particularly Black and brown neighborhoods. It spread like a virus, leading its users toward fast addictions and petty crime to support them. People were losing their whole families to drug use and violence, and many more were sent to jail. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, where graffiti was born in the 70s, sidestepping and the electric boogaloo were invented in the new decade. Wendy “Lady B” Clark was signed by an independent label with the help of a local radio host and became the first woman to record a solo rap. She earned a position as a radio host on WHAT-FM and created the show Street Beat. Lady B would become “one of the most important radio DJs in hip-hop history” (100), helping rappers like Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince (Will Smith) and The Roots break through to the mainstream. 

Reagan continued reversing the civil rights movement’s victories in the 1980s, reverting the nation back to a state of “segregation and inequality” (102). Social services were reduced in the name of tax cuts for the wealthy, and the gap between the rich and poor, the Black and the white, grew to new heights in 1989. A crew named Boogie Down Productions was formed in a shelter for people without homes in the Bronx by Scott Sterling and Lawrence Parker. Lawrence Parker grew up in a poor Black neighborhood that was regularly visited by Hare Krishnas who came to help feed the those without homes. He was inspired by them, and came to adopt the nickname Kris. This later morphed into his tag, KRS-ONE. He rhymed about war, police brutality, and people without homes. While he was staying at the Franklin Street Shelter, Scott Sterling, a recently graduated social worker, stopped by to distribute subway tokens. Scott confronted Kris about selling the tokens instead of using them, and Kris accused Scott of being a “sellout” and “tap-dancing for the white establishment” (103). Despite their differences, both loved hip-hop and grew up with the parties thrown by DJ Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa. They found each other again at DJ Ced Gee’s house, where Scott invited Kris to his club show. Scott was an amazing MC and blew Kris away. The two were soon rapping together on stage and became known as KRS-One and DJ Scott La Rock, forming the group Boogie Down Productions. They struggled to find a record deal until KRS-One produced a rap battle response to Shan’s rhymes about Queensbridge. Hip-hop was going back to its original style—stories about where people come from. Boogie Down Productions continued their music career making albums that responded to the drug and gang violence perpetuated by the government and police. They believed hip-hop to be an emotional and social release from it all, and they wanted to attract gang members and thugs so they could change their attitudes. On August 27, 1987, Scott went to make peace between two gangs and was shot to death. KRS-One responded with a Malcolm X-inspired album cover, reminding Americans that “hip-hop was about choosing life in the struggle against oppression and death” (106). He began the Stop the Violence Movement, calling rappers to create a video and host a march to raise awareness for Black-on-Black violence. Together, they recorded “Self Destruction,” which raised $250,000 for anti-violence programs.

Apartheid in South Africa was a driving force of the moral struggles of the world during the 1980s. Whites maintained political power in a majority Black nation, and Reagan fully supported their regime. Protests rose up in South Africa, with 30,000 detained and 2500 killed between 1984 and 1986. Campuses in the United States exploded in protest as well, and the Hip-Hop Against Apartheid collective formed in 1989. The protests worked to an extent, as Congress passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, banning future investment in South Africa unless it was Black-owned. Reagan attempted to veto the bill, but his veto was overturned. Nelson Mandela was released from jail. The issues that Apartheid brought to light also allowed Black youth in America to see more clearly their own oppression and the racism that permeated their country.

Schools re-segregated across America and people of color were often trapped in communities that forced them to remain in poverty. Crack cocaine destroyed many of these communities as well. Musical artists saw what was going on around them and organized peacemaking movements and wrote songs about ending gang and gun violence. The government seemed to be targeting Black youth, isolating them and preventing them from finding work. A man named Bernhard Goetz shot four Black boys after one asked him for spare change in a subway car, and New York City rallied around him to get him bailed out and defended. Another incident occurred in which two Black men were targeted and chased down by a group of white vigilantes who wanted them out of their neighborhood. They were not killed, but the police and public treated them as if they were the villains and suspects. A march was held in Howard Beach which made its way to the mayor’s house as people shouted, “Howard Beach is Johannesburg” (110). In September 1989, real estate developer Donald Trump “was calling for the execution of five Black and Latinx teenagers who were suspects in the rape and brutal beating of a white woman” (111). Trump was outspoken about his hatred for Black people, calling them murderers. Trump’s public pressure on the situation contributed to the lack of a fair trial for the accused. The boys accused had no evidence against them, and it was not until years later that they were found innocent and released. They would become known as The Exonerated Five, but prison had changed them forever. One of the responses to this outward hatred and violence toward people of color was the “rise of a group called Public Enemy” (112).

Public Enemy started in Adelphi University in Long Island. They began by hosting a radio show for rap, interviewing artists like Run-DMC and Grandmaster Flash. One of them, Bill Stephney, landed a job at Def Jam, which led to a four-song deal and eventually an album. They adopted new nicknames and put together a musical team with DJ MC Flavor (Flavor Flav), Chuck D, and Professor Griff. Hank Shocklee and Bill Stephney advised and produced. Hank came up with the name Public Enemy because “the Black man is definitely the public enemy” (113). Their plan was to bust stereotypes and get their message across by taking over what was a highly racist media in as many sectors as possible. Chuck described rap as “America’s TV station” (114) because it talked about all the things everyday people experienced, the good and the bad. Rap also allowed Black people to communicate with each other and relate to each other about what they were going through. Public Enemy quickly refined their craft, producing more aggressive beats and lyrics: “Impeach the president / Pulling out the raygun” (115). Utilizing the “loud, Black, proud tradition” (115) of James Brown and the political unrest of their country, Public Enemy took themselves to the top of the hip-hop scene, selling over a million copies of their second record just two months after its release. When Public Enemy pulled into Philadelphia, a parade was held, and old rebels, hip-hoppers, and Black Panthers came out to salute them “like the revolution has come back” (116). Public Enemy produced “Fight the Power” for a movie about Brooklyn’s racial tensions in the summer and performed it at the premier. The world was turning to hip-hop more every day.

In Los Angeles, hip-hop was building its own unique scene inspired heavily by the deep beats and drum kicks of Afrika Bambaataa and Larry Graham of Sly and the Family Stone. Car-speaker sound systems were popular, giving way to sounds dedicated to making the most of these speakers. Funk was always popular in LA, which naturally developed into hip-hop in the 1980s. Soul Train showed America the unique dance and culture of Los Angeles hip-hop, and “a dance called ‘The Funky Chicken’” (117) developed. Don Campbell, a Soul Train dancer, introduced a move called locking. Funk styles of the West Coast dominated and a hip-hop club called Radio hosted artists such as Ice-T, who began rapping as a teenager in the Crips. Rap music about gang life and Los Angeles also carried with it “a deep history of mobile DJ sound systems, dating back to the early 1970s” (119), which were used to hold disco-style parties. One pivotal figure of these parties was Disco Lonzo, who had his own record label, and a group of DJs called the World Class Wreckin Cru, which included Dr. Dre and DJ Yella. Lonzo opened up a studio in his house, which Dre and Yella used to mix their own tapes. The two “became two of the first mix DJs on LA’s KDAY” (121), a radio station that predominantly played rap. Dre and Yella were still teenagers at the time but seemed to be more aware than Lonzo of the changes happening around them.

O’Shea Jackson, also known as Ice Cube, returned to Los Angeles at age 19 after earning an architectural drafting degree in Phoenix. The degree was a way to get his parents off his back so he would write rhymes and make records. At age 17, he was slipping out of the house to rap for crowds in Compton at Eve’s After Dark nightclub with his group CIA (Criminals in Action). Dre and Yella often spun there as well, and Eric “Eazy-E” Wright spotted them playing there on weekends. Dre liked Ice Cube’s take on hip-hop and introduced them to Lonzo, who landed them their first single deal. Many rappers were indebted to Lonzo, trapping them under his management. When Dre was accused of and arrested for stealing Lonzo’s car, Wright offered to bail him out on the condition that he produce records for him instead. Dre convinced Wright to rap for “The Boyz-N-the-Hood,” invariably causing a new age of hip-hop to begin. Ice Cube’s lyrics were violent and extreme; he wanted to show the world what the West Coast was about. Many radio stations refused to play it. But the song represented “the suppressed story of Black Los Angeles” (124) and needed to be heard. Together, this group of rappers formed NWA (N---az With Attitude). A new responsibility was placed on their shoulders to uphold the image of Black LA.

In Los Angeles, segregation was forced on Black people for decades. They were “forced to live in overcrowded conditions, while police prevented them from crossing the imaginary boundaries where the white neighborhoods began” (125). The effects of this segregation continue to be felt today. In the 1960s, riots broke out when police brutality left a number of Black people injured in Watts. Gangs joined the fight as well. The FBI counteracted the movement with their own Counterintelligence Program “by fostering bloody tensions between the young Black radicals and revolutionaries” (126). Their plan succeeded, resulting in death, but soon everyone realized their intentions and provocations led to the violence. The new Black Panther leader, Geronimo Pratt, was imprisoned for life on false charges, and revolutionaries were systematically removed rom the picture. Raymond Washington, a teenager at Watt’s Fremont High School, formed the Baby Avenues in 1969. This new gang built over the next two years and stood in solidarity with the Black Panthers’ creed. However, along the way their message got lost, and “the goal changed to simply beating down other Black youths for their jackets” (127). The origins of the name change to Crips is muddled, but the gang creed evolved into one of crime. The Crips grew and spread across Los Angeles. Rivals, such as the Pirus and Bloods, emerged on the scene, and “in 1973, the beefs turned bloody” (128). Crips chose blue, Bloods chose red. As unemployment (due to factory closures) and cocaine use rose, so did gang involvement. Raymond Washington was murdered in prison by a rival gang member, and over thirty thousand gang members were claimed in gang wars by the time the 1980s arrived. In 1983 during the height of the Reagan recession, youth unemployment in South Los Angeles was at 50%.

As gang activity rose, so did police involvement. Los Angeles approved 650 new officers and a military-style operation to combat the gangs. They “freely profiled and brutalized youths of color” (129) pre-emptively and without cause. Youth in gangs had regular run-ins with police, who would mistreat and mistrust them. One former Piru named Twilight Bey described it as a form of social conditioning to instill fear into the Black community. He pointed out that being pushed into a corner for too long causes people to fight back. NWA responded with their album Straight Outta Compton, which included the singles “Fuck Tha Police” and “Gangsta.” Ice Cube wanted to be seen as untouchable, and Dr. Dre wanted to offend and shock the public. The album achieved gold status in six weeks, and “the sound was so powerful that it had to be named […] Gangsta rap” (131). Police across the country and the FBI viewed the song as “discouraging and degrading to these brave, dedicated officers” (131), and some refused to police NWA’s concerts. Others became overly strict at concerts, demanding to search the crews and accusing them of being gang members trying to widen their territory through the tour locations. In Detroit, when the band attempted to play “Fuck tha Police,” the large crowd of police rushed the stage, causing the band to flee. MTV banned the video for “Straight Outta Compton.” Despite the backlash, NWA’s success continued and grew. NWA inspired a whole new generation of youth to try their hand at rap and tell their own stories, and that generation would become the next hip-hop era.