Hip-hop has come a long way since its inception back in the ‘70s. Spawning from the sounds of jazz and soul music, and eventually branching off itself, hip-hop’s contribution to society as we know it today is of astronomical proportion. ~Click Read More for photos and the full interview. 

Hip-hop has come a long way since its inception back in the ‘70s. Spawning from the sounds of jazz and soul music, and eventually branching off itself, hip-hop’s contribution to society as we know it today is of astronomical proportion. At first, our society did not want to accept this as a form of musical and artistic expression and would not recognize the achievements of some of the pioneers of this movement. From the music came many things in the form of dance, art and a culture that has not only been tapping into the mainstream but re-writing what is considered popular culture.

The influence hip-hop on the youth of today can be compared to that of the hippie movement of the ‘60s in terms of volume. Everyday life has been positively and sometimes negatively affected by this cultural phenomenon, with an equal balance that shows that just like other cultures, hip-hop is human.

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Special thanks to and photos courtesy of Okayplayer.com

Music has always had an impact on the lives of its listeners, and the infinite possibilities that it provides will allow for new and different sounds to be discovered. Hip-hop is constantly evolving and with the ever-changing world around us, it is important for the people involved in the business to keep the ideas fresh without ever forgetting where it all began.

I recently had the chance to sit and talk with the multi-talented drummer and co-creator of The Roots, ?uestlove at this years Hip Honor Honors. The Roots have been around long enough to see the evolution firsthand. ?uestlove, also known as Ahmir Thompson, founded The Roots with Tariq Trotter aka Black Thought back in 1987, when the two were in school together. So for the last 20 years, The Roots have been making their mark and also studying the marks left by others in the world of hip-hop.

Since 2004, VH1 has held the Hip Hop Honors Awards honoring contributors from past to present with live performances from new artists paying tribute to the people that have influenced them. This year The Roots headlined the Hip Hop Honors Tour featuring Big Daddy Kane and MC Lyte.

I caught up with ?uestlove backstage before the show in his hometown of Philadelphia and got to know his thoughts of the current state of hip-hop.

Looking at hip-hop today as a whole, give me your view on the progress that the music and culture have made since the beginning.
When one looks at the progress of hip-hop, you basically have to see the parallel of what came before it, which is jazz. Once someone told me that this was a mirror of what will happen,  I thought OK, that’s exactly where hip-hop’s gonna' go. I didn’t want to accept it, only because I was told this in 1990 and at that point hip-hop couldn’t, in my head, get much better. And actually it got much better, and I was like “it’s all good,” then hell occurred in 1997.
It’s the same story, just like jazz, both are a subculture of impoverished conditions. Then 5 to10 years into it, you have some sort of subculture activity going on and that’s where the magic begins, a lot of discovery. 15 years into it, it seeps into the mainstream, 25 years into it, it becomes what it was once against. And then 40 years down the line it becomes your parents’ music. I pretty much see and accept that as the story of hip-hop. It’s like a tool for expression, then it becomes a tool for commerce and then you fall out of love with it. I look at hip-hop as a human being. To me its birthed on wax marks, incubation to adolescents, but here we are almost 30 years later, and hip-hop is basically just been sort of an unwed pregnant mother of 12.

What are some of the new forms of music branching out from hip-hop, the way it has branched from the likes of jazz?

Without the work of Public Enemy and The Bomb Squad, you wouldn’t have Chemical Brothers or Daft Punk. You wouldn’t have Moby. The whole idea of using sound collage as your data base to create another song I definitely feel Public Enemy is responsible for. I consider electric funk music and the music of Africa Bambaataa the precursor of what we now have as house music with what happened in Detroit and the invention of Electro-music and techno music. Drum and Bass is still an extension, the Apache break beat, the Soul Pride break beat being the tip of the Drum and Bass movement and also the Amen Break. And now with Baltimore house, it’s funny how the James Brown think break was the New Jack Swing national anthem. It’s now the Baltimore House. Hip-hop definitely has a lot of children: bastard children, unwed children, children created in love, children with down-syndrome, every type of child.

How big of an impact has hip-hop music had on the people involved within that culture?
Music has definitely had an impact on lifestyle in general, to the point where it’s almost like a survival tool more than anything. A survival tool in terms of how to communicate, dress, of how to express yourself, make money, and sometimes it’s literally survival. Hip-hop is literally saving some lives.

With this tour and award shows like the Hip Hop Honors, how has the crowd responded and do you see any nostalgic effects bringing back Big Daddy Kane or MC Lyte?
There’s definitely a longing for that feeling. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with nostalgia. I think what we’ve seen is nostalgia being abused by other markets. You’ll go to a Beach Boys show and you might see Carl Wilson and maybe Mike Love and 4 other new cats but not Brian Wilson, or the Rolling Stones charging $500 a ticket. So I’ve definitely seen nostalgia be abused, but hip-hop has been slow to get on the nostalgia bandwagon because that’s really admitting you’re old. Hip-hop was told to be a youth-oriented culture, but I think that hip-hop’s participants are one day gonna' face the fact like “Yo, mothaf-----. We 40.”

I’m 36 and tell people I’m 40 because basically I am 40. I think like an old man. So I have absolutely no qualms about it, and I think that it’s very possible for a 40 year old to exist in this climate. We saw evidence of that when we sold out Radio City Music Hall for two nights. And all the sudden we were scratchin’ our heads like “How the hell did this group without a platinum record sell out 6,000 seats?”

And then it just hit us, our audience just grew old with us, and those same 40 year old cats that were in college 20 years ago, cats that were 25 when the Low End Theory came out, are now fathers in 2007. They still want to hear that music they grew up on. You never want to abandon the soundtrack of your youth. There’s just been nobody that openly embraces it in a fun way and don’t make it seem old.

VH1 has done a great job with the Hip Hop Honors Awards, what do you think the difference is with this type of awards compared to some other genres of music?
I think it’s a good balance. We always go through this sort of battle of the minds thing when it’s time to figure out who gets inducted and what not. Jack, the leader of the whole thing, his idea is that we have to have a balance. If we did a show based on just the old school cats, we might lose some of the people trying to figure out what’s hip for today. I’m glad they do it in a non-check order.
It’s not like the Rock n’Roll Hall of Fame that strictly has it where you must be in the business for 25 years before you can get inducted. I think it’s more rounded and as long as pioneers can find a way to survive, they’ll eventually be inducted. As long as you make a significant contribution to the culture, you can get your just props. Really four years in Hip Hop is like a lifetime. Four years is equivalent to 10 years of work. Teddy Riley deserves it, Andre Harrell deserves it, and the people deserve it all around.

Being in the music industry for as long as you have, do still find yourself being influenced by new sounds and people that are just now hitting the scene?
About five floors above us, I have a massive 60,000+ record collection, and I hear and discover stuff everyday that keeps me excited about music. I’m on the internet at least 3 hours a day minimum because I got to know the future. I got to know what’s up. So maybe a person that’s not well-informed of what goes on online could very much feel that this culture is dead. Me, on the other hand, feel there are a lot of groups out there that are worthy: Little Brother, Tanya Morgan, The ARE, even cats like Spank Rock or Plastic Little, or just cats that are on some new shit. There are a whole slew of people out there that are amazing.

As the world of hip-hop has evolved, so has the world around it. Do you see the advancements of technology helping with the advancements of the music industry?
There are definite developments that The Roots didn’t have any access to when we were coming up. There’s a whole other network. The fact that Jim Jones picked 6 producers from Myspace without having to meet them, but just by listening to their beats is amazing. He has an A&R cat whose job is just to listen to beats. That’s smart.

After this tour, what’s on tap for The Roots?
We have a new album coming out on April 29 of 2008, called Rising Down.

OK, thanks for everything and have a great show tonight!
Cool, take it easy.

 

 

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