Hip Hop 50th Anniversary

KRS-One Honored With Mural In Neighborhood Where He Was Once Homeless

by

This year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop, and New York City is giving a nod to KRS-One. The Boogie Down Productions icon has been involved in the culture since its inception, and he’s grown to be a respected artist, activist, and teacher. FOX 5 News reported that KRS was recently honored in the Big Apple with a stunning mural on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His initial reaction was a shocked “Wow!”

“There is no award that is above this,” the “Self Destruction” icon said. This mural was carefully constructed to celebrate not only KRS-One but Hip Hop’s 50th. The mural’s location also touched the rapper’s heart because he grew up in that neighborhood, and it was a humbling, full-circle moment.

Read More: Bow Wow Receives Response From Hip Hop Alliance’s KRS-One, Kurtis Blow, & Chuck D

“I grew up here,” he told the news outlet. The powerful artwork stopped him in his tracks. “KRS-One grew up in this neighborhood and was less than every single person here. I was homeless. I might have slept right there.” The placement was important for the mural’s creator, Jorit. The Italian street artist explained to Fox 5 the impact KRS has had on Hip Hop culture.

“KRS-One is aggressive, but he always looked to unite the aggressiveness and force of rap with positive messages,” Jorit shared. KRS was asked what he learned from Hip Hop, and he replied, “I can do anything.”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 17: Big Daddy Kane and KRS 1 perform during TrillerVerz at Barclays Center on October 17, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
Read More: KRS-One Teams With Slick Rick & Big Daddy Kane For Hip Hop Alliance Video

Hundreds of thousands of people turned into Verzuz in real-time to watch KRS-One and Big Daddy Kane join together. The union was supported by several of their Rap pioneer peers, many of which we haven’t heard from in decades. Verzuz prides itself on celebrating Black culture and music, and they promise more will come in 2023 following a minor legal setback.

[via]

Chuck D Only Wants To Talk About Kanye’s Art, Not His Scandals

by

We’re easing into the second month of Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary, and Chuck D is celebrating the culture. The Rap pioneer witnessed the inception of Hip Hop all those years ago, and he was instrumental in the genre’s development as a member of Public Enemy. On February 7, Chuck D is releasing Livin’ Loud: ARTitation, a collection of 250 artworks, and it arrives ahead of his Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World, a must-see series on PBS.

In a discussion with USA Today, Chuck D explained why it was necessary for him to produce this four-part docuseries. “I’m 12 years older than hip-hop and I’ve been entrenched in it my whole life. I always wanted to be a caretaker of it.” He also shared, “I grew up a child of the arts. I knew who my people were and when hip-hop came along, I saw it as a latter-day voice.”

Read More: Bow Wow Receives Response From Hip Hop Alliance’s KRS-One, Kurtis Blow, & Chuck D

The Fight The Power series explores Hip Hop through a different lens. Chuck touched on what he learned through the process of speaking with his acclaimed peers about the depths of Hip Hop history. He suggested that several artists were able to share their knowledge of Hip Hop because they were being presented with the right questions.

“Grandmaster Caz, Monie Love, Eminem,” he began. “They all sound like scholars because they were never presented with questions of depth and detail about hip-hop before. I learned that when you present questions in a high regard, when quality is the conversation as opposed to quantity, everybody came up with answers that went beyond what was expected.”

Elsewhere, the Rap icon was also questioned about a drawing of Kanye West featured in his art book. Chuck D was asked if he was disappointed that West seemed more interested in attention than the message itself. He replied, “I don’t look at Kanye as being any different than Salvador Dalí. I’m gonna keep it to your art and go no further.”

“I’m not in the business of making Black people or Black art look bad,” Chuck D answered. “Celebrity is a drug of the USA. They try to tell you it’s a drug of the world, but you go other places and they’ll tell you that you’re an entertainer, you have no political voice. They say, play a song and don’t say anything to the audience. And the No. 1 job of an entertainer is to abide by that law. I learned that with Public Enemy or we would have been Brittney Griner a long time ago. And no one was coming to get a Black male.”

[via]