by Rachel Virginia Newman
On the evening of Thursday, Sept. 21, Dr. Beatrice Adams, assistant professor of history, in conjunction with both her home History Department and Multicultural Student Affairs, hosted “For the Culture: Hip Hop at 50.” When speaking with Dr. Adams after her lecture, it was clear that this evening was a labor of love. With the fiftieth anniversary of hip hop coming up, she had wanted to do something to commemorate and share her love of this expressive genre of music.
“I think this is phenomenal. This is my favorite history event I’ve been to,” said Quentin Kitchell ’25, after Dr. Adams’ lecture. This sentiment appeared to be shared by the other students, faculty and staff in the room when Dr. Adams finished her lecture to resounding applause — although, the excitement was likely a combination of Dr. Adams’ expertise and the impending free barbecue food provided at the event.
Despite one of her opening lines — “Surprisingly, I’m not actually a historian of hip hop” — Dr. Adams said that she would love to teach a class on its history. When asked about turning this event into a lecture series, she shook her head but adamantly reaffirmed that she wanted to teach a class on this niche era of cultural history.
The lecture spanned years, starting with the beginning of rap and how its development is interwoven with the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement. The “amalgamation of…cultural influences” of African Americans who have migrated south, Puerto Ricans and Jamaican immigrants all led to hip hop. “The 1970s is really this moment of harvest, and it is also the moment from which hip hop emerges. They’re connected,” Dr. Adams said.
Hip hop emerged hand-in-hand with the Black Arts Movement, with leaders such as Amiri Baraka, The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron — the latter of whom wrote and performed “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” — that set the foundation for the future of hip hop. Dr. Adams, before sharing a recording of the song, gave the audience a very short rendition of it to demonstrate the “rhythmatic delivery of poems over a beat.”
However, the origin story of hip hop is not just a wonderful amalgamation of cultures; it was born from the flames. Urban decay was persistent throughout the Bronx and caused the deterioration of businesses and services in the 1970s. This deterioration led to the development of a common phrase “The Bronx is burning,” which is woven throughout many rap songs as the Bronx was literally burning during that time period. Alongside a sample of her own rapping, Dr. Adams described the song “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five as a response to the artists’ environment and the urban decay that was prevalent in their homes.
For Kitchell, learning about the “Bronx is burning” was the most interesting part of the lecture. As a history and sociology double major, Kitchell has taken many urban sociology classes, but said that these classes have focused on the urban decay itself, rather than what came after.
“We talk a lot about urban renewal … but we never saw the culture that came from it. And I think this is kind of a cool way to humanize it and give it some dimension,” said Kitchell.Although the evening certainly threw some curveballs with numerous technical difficulties, Dr. Adams didn’t fail to deliver a lecture that was as informative as it was stimulating. There is no doubt that when Dr. Adams’ history of hip hop class is finally offered, students will be clamoring for a spot.