Today we are celebrating Hip-Hop culture’s 50th birthday! The culture of Hip-Hop, which is notably distinct from the Hip-Hop music industry, can be said to date back thousands of years to wall carvings and griot traditions in Africa.
Art, dancing, storytelling and instrumentation have existed within indigenous black and brown cultures for centuries. As time passes, cultures grow and develop based on what’s happening around them, and they “remix” themselves.
In this feature, “City Lights” producer Jeannine Etter covers the remix of ancient African cultures into what we now know as Hip-Hop culture, speaking with Kevin Powell, human and civil rights activist, author and Hip-Hop historian, Joycelyn Wilson, an assistant professor of Hip-Hop studies and digital media at Georgia Tech and Joe Stewart Professor of “Evolution of Hip-Hop” at Clark Atlanta University.
“The same people that Dr. King reminded us not to forget with ‘The Poor People’s Campaign’ are the very same people who ended up creating Hip-Hop,” Kevin Powell said.
You can find out more information about Hip-Hop’s bday here.
