City Hall Honors 50 Years Of Hip Hop

New Haven hip hop pioneer DJ Terrible T had some pointed questions for his audience at the Hall of Records at 200 Orange St.

“What are we going to leave behind? What is hip hop going to mean to this little girl right here?” he asked, gesturing toward an audience member. ​“We can sit up here and talk about who we’ve been and who we DJed and how long we did it. But if we don’t leave a permanent, positive impression on our future — our children — what have we really accomplished?”

The occasion was a Black History Month event Thursday evening honoring New Haven’s contributions to hip hop across its 50-year history, presented by the Black and Hispanic Caucus of New Haven Board of Alders and the City of New Haven Youth and Recreation Department. Speaking on behalf of the city were Ward 19 Alder and Chair of the Black and Hispanic Caucus Kimberly Edwards and Director of Legislative Services Albert Lucas. 

Many of those invited to the event were greeted by a long table of citations from the city for their contributions to hip hop. DJ Tafari filled the air with music, and The Chef Chrissy Experience arranged a hearty spread of meat and sides for all to partake from.

“We’re here to acknowledge hip hop culture and shine a light on the people who brought it here,” said Edwards by way of introduction. Lucas continued in that vein, starting with Steve ​“Stezo” Williams, pioneering dancer, rapper, and producer who died in April 2020 at the age of 52 from heart complications. ​“He was one of the folks who helped put us on the map.” In the past 50 years, he reflected further, ​“we’ve come so far from radio stations that didn’t want to play hop hop” to radio stations that are dedicated to it — ​“a full 180.”

DJ P‑Zo first took an age check, noting that all generations were represented at the event, but many were in their 50s and 60s, and a few in their 70s.

With hip hop entering its sixth decade, ​“a lot of our pioneers are passing,” he said, though many were ​“still alive,” making it a poignant time to reflect and be thankful. He noted that hip hop was just the latest in a lineage of Black American musical innovation, from folk and country and blues to jazz and rock. ​“We done it all,” he said.

He then acknowledged a long list of names — many of whom were in attendance, and came to the front to get their citations — taking listeners on a trip through New Haven and Connecticut hip hop, from Tony Crush and DJ Terrible T to the Skinny Boys to Dooley‑O (whose name got a round of applause) to radio DJ Twoski and Money Moses, who were playing hip hop on college radio in the 80s when no commercial stations would touch it.

He mentioned Mr. Magic, who recorded New Haven’s first hip hop record in 1979. He mentioned TC Islam, whose ​“Funky Fresh New England” made others notice the region and whose ​“hip step” style was at the beginning of EDM. 

He also mentioned how New Haven was an important stop on the hip hop ​“chitlin’ circuit” that followed the train lines out from New York, meaning that touring artists could easily make the Elm City a stop. That meant, in the early years of hip hop, seeing all the legends as they came through town, including Run DMC at Hillhouse High School.

Others got up to speak briefly. Tafari played more songs, and people sang along.

As the event began to wind to a close, two elders — DJ Terrible T and Tony Crush — got up to remind those in attendance what hip hop was from its inception.

“Hip hop is based on four positive, powerful principles,” said DJ Terrible T. He asked the audience to help him say them out loud, ​“in the right order, because hip hop was a necessity because the violence that was going on in our communities.” What was the first principle?

“Love,” someone said.

“No,” T said, correcting them. ​“Peace. We had to bring peace back to our community.” Next was love. Then unity. Then having fun. 

“Those are the four cornerstones,” T said. ​“Hip hop was from the voice of kids from our communities. Teenagers!… We became the voice of the hood. The voice of the community. The voice of the people who had no voice.” T and Crush reminded the audience that they were among those teenagers.

T told the audience how hip hop grew from ​“our parents’ records”: funk, jazz, fusion, and rock. ​“And somewhere along the line we put two and two together and starting mixing them back and forth, catching the beat — looking for the perfect beat.” 

But rapping and DJing were just two of five aspects of hip hop culture. The other three: graffiti, breakdancing — and education.

Four principles, five aspects: ​“that’s our nine lives,” T said. ​“So don’t take hip hop and not teach. Don’t take hip hop and just want to dance. Because that ain’t going to do our kids no good. We ain’t just a bunch of entertainers. We are educators. We’re in the present-day system and it is not going to change, so we have to depend on ourselves to educate ourselves.” He urged the kids in the audience to express themselves but get an education, open a business, do entrepreneurship. 

But it wasn’t just about money, or fame. ​“What have you done for the least of them? What have you done for our community? What have we done for our schools and community centers? This is the driving force of hip hop. And that’s why it came together initially in 1973.”

“When I was coming up, the Bronx was burning,” said Tony Crush, who grew up there and now lives in Bridgeport. ​“It looked like a war zone.” Hip hop was about getting away from gangs. ​“We did it eight years and it didn’t have any name. It wasn’t called hip hop. They hadn’t branded it yet.” 

In 1979, that changed. Suddenly Sugar Hill Gang was a ​“recording artist. They wasn’t doing it in the street with us” anymore. ​“They took them right in the studio, and right out of the road.” The Cold Crush Brothers found themselves touring Japan in 1983 without a hit record. Run DMC broke in 1986. He fast forwarded to the 21st century, to hip hop’s recognition at the United Nations, at universities, in museums across the country. Today it’s a dominant cultural force across the world.

But he could still remember his induction into the culture, as a teenager in a record stop. ​“My brother asked me, did I ever hear of Kool Herc?” He went to a Kool Herc party that night, ​“and my whole life changed.” He passed out at that party from drinking too much. ​“I quit drinking the next day, and I still don’t drink. Hip hop really helps, if you connect with it. They try to push the negative, the negative, the negative, and we keep pushing the positive, because like T said, the fifth element is knowledge, and you ain’t teaching, then you ain’t doing hip hop.”