Billboard Celebrates Black Music Month: Hip-hop It's Here To Stay, Ok?

Hip-Hop, the music that was supposed to just fade away in the early '80s, is still here and stronger than ever in its undeniable influence on the American and world cultures. Hip-hop's economic impact on the recording industry as a whole keeps it in the spotlight. Nonetheless, when executives who have played a variety of roles in this musical evolution talk about the genesis of hip-hop, the culture behind the music and its future, its significance clearly surpasses mere dollars and cents.
"Hip-hop was created as a strategy for a better living, a better way a life," says KRS-One, veteran hip-hop artist who was first introduced to the genre in 1977. "MCing, DJing, graffiti art, beatboxing and breaking- the original five elements of hip-hop-were not a means to make money, but a means to have victory over the streets, to have an identity, to be somebody when you walked down the street."
Even those who don't have the ground-floor affiliation with hip-hop of a KRS-One echo its significance, pinpointing other factors.
"Hip-hop has underscored the word "hope,' " says Jheryl Busby, head of Dreamworks' black music division. "It has sold hope to kids who have very little. They'd given up on education because education had given up on them. The arts have been taken out of schools. Everything that would develop one's soul has been disappearing. Hip-hop became an art form that allowed young kids to not only express themselves, but to start businesses and actually see a return. A sense of pride, a sense of ownership and a sense of culture have also come out of it."

CHANGING POP'S COMPLEXION
Bill Adler, independent music consultant and former publicist for Def Jam Records in the early days, notes another contribution of hip-hop. "One of the great things that rap music did, incidentally, was reintegrate American pop music," Adler suggests. "There had been this sort of weird, forced segregation in radio in the '70s. Then, in the early '80s, you had these [rap] artists who were so popular and so magnetic emerging. They literally changed the complexion of the pop scene."
Hip-hop's commercial viability was noticed and acted upon early on, as suggested by the success of the 1984 Fresh Fest, said to be the first hip-hop arena tour. It was fueled by the release of "Breakin," a film focusing on hip-hop culture as well as "Breakin'...There's No Stopping Us," the subsequent single (No. 8 on Billboard's Top Pop Singles chart) and album (No. 33 on Top Black albums) by Ollie and Jerry on Polydor Records.
"In '85, I really felt the momentum as we did the Fresh Fest a second time," says Michael Mauldin, COO of So So Def Records, who was a coordinator of the festival working on behalf of CW & Associates. "It was totally phenomenal-sold out across the country. You had kids of all walks of life attending. We had 12,000 to 19,000 people every night, four times a week. In some cities we actually did matinees."
Acts on the bill included Run-DMC, Kurtis Blow, Whodini, the Fat Boys and LL Cool J. Four rap albums were in the Top Black Albums chart for 1985. Run-DMC's "King Of Rock" on Profile Records and the Fat Boys' eponymously entitled album on Sutra cracked the Top Pop Albums chart that year. By 1988, nearly a quarter of the Top Black Albums chart was occupied by hip-hop, and there were four hip-hop albums on the Top Pop Albums chart. In 1989, the trend continued, as 16 hip-hop albums occupied slots on the Top Black Albums charts. Run-DMC had a deal with Adidas, the Fat Boys were endorsing Swatch watches, and LL Cool J was endorsing Troop, a fashion line, Adler says, pointing out the early commercial opportunities explored by pioneers like Russell Simmons.

OVERGROUND IN AN INSTANT
"There was hardly ever a moment when [rap music] was underground," Adler says. "One of the very first so-called rap records, was a monster hit ("Rapper's Delight" by the Sugar Hill Gang on Sugarhill Records). It was not a fluke that artist after artist and record after record turned out to be hits. This music struck a very popular chord from the beginning.
"It didn't make a difference that some folks found it very odd and other folks found it very hostile and threatening. It wasn't even music to some folks. Radio wouldn't play it. The press wouldn't write about it. Yet kids would still find these records and support these artists. Something seems to be built into this music, built into the culture."
Russell Simmons, co-founder of Def Jam and numerous hip-hop focused business ventures-including 360hip-hop-suggests just what that "something" might be. "The integrity and the honesty of the artist is what makes it different than the other art forms that come and go," Simmons says. "I think people buy authenticity, and that's what has kept it alive much longer than the initial rock 'n' rollers who came and went. The attitude [of early rock] came and went. Authenticity and integrity is what we have been trying to preserve over the years."

LIBERATION PHILOSOPHY
While many applaud the financial success of hip-hop music, others like KRS-One, a.k.a Kris Parker, feel that the commercial success of the music has in fact "killed" the culture and hip-hop's initial purpose.
"The major corporations have turned rap-one element of hip-hop-into a money-making thing, and the rappers who are desperate for money have sold out the culture," says Parker, who is also VP of A&R for Reprise/Warner Bros. Records. "In a very real and literal sense, they sold pieces of the culture like most cultures have done in the face of Western man. Only a few of us have maintained the original purpose-liberation through hip-hop."
Parker also refutes the value of the deals that the hip-hop business community is making with the major labels. He believes that there are no real hip-hop record labels, or even owners for that matter. "We are posing and fronting and taking loans from banks-loans from Warner Bros., MCA, Sony and putting ourselves in debt," Parker says. "The only way you have your own business is when you can prove you are not in debt. That's Capitalism 101. The one who you are in debt to owns your business."

LACK OF COMMUNITY
Mauldin feels that many young entrepreneurs, including Jermaine Dupri, Mauldin's son and owner of So So Def Records, have developed into shrewd and sophisticated businessmen. But Mauldin, like many, feels there is still a lack of community among the leaders in hip-hop music and admits that maybe he should have started an organization while he was in power as president of the black music division of Columbia Records and senior VP of the Columbia Group. "We all get caught up in what we do on a day-to-day basis, allowing things to go by us," Mauldin says. "Then, upon reflection, we look back saying we should have done this and we should have done that."
Parker agrees that a prevalent body or organization representing the interest of the hip-hop community is needed. "Every rap artist signed to a label should give a point to a hip-hop foundation of some sort for the preservation of hip-hop," suggests Parker, who runs an educational organization called Temple Of Hip-Hop and cites Rap Coalition, Zulu Nation and The Point as other potential recipients of such an effort. "That is something we must do."

ELASTIC ART FORM
Despite the numerous issues that surround the genre, whether or not hip-hop is here to stay is no longer up for debate. "What has been demonstrated in the last 20 years is that, as an art form, rap is tremendously elastic," Adler theorizes. "There is such a variety of rap right now that it's hard to characterize. If in fact, you are looking for consciousness in the music, you can find consciousness in the music. At the present moment, we live in an extremely materialistic age, where, no matter who you are talking to, ain't nothin' goin' on but the rent. Many of today's rappers are [lyrically] in sync with their times."