Dalton Higgins, author of the book 'Hip Hop World', among others. - Contributed Photos
The love of hip hop has taken Dalton Higgins, a music programmer, pop culture critic, author, broadcaster and journalist, around the world, but it was a visit to Germany that inspired him to write a new book, Hip Hop World.
The Canada-born writer of Jamaican parentage takes a uniquely intelligent look at the multiculturalism of hip hop, profiling the movement globally, and includes an examination of Canadian and Aboriginal communities.
"I was at a music conference in Germany, in a small town called Essen, and I checked into the hotel and there is this young guy at the check-in desk," Higgins recalled. "He couldn't speak English well, but he communicated to me by beat boxing, looking at me as a black, dreadlocked guy thinking I'm from the west." Higgins beat boxed back to him and then they started talking.
Political tool
In Hip Hop World, Higgins takes vivid snapshots of the hip hop scenes in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and more. North American hip hop has gone through growing pains, and is questioned for being too commercialised to articulate the hopes, concerns and dreams of marginal youths and community members - what it was originally created for. Outside the US, hip hop culture is often just the opposite - a political tool to mobilise disenfranchised communities around hard issues, with little support from mainstream corporations or sponsors.
Being the son of a mother from Clarendon and a father from Kingston, and being born in Toronto, the most multicultural city in the world, Higgins is able to tell the story from a different prism about the origins of hip hop from the revisionist history that he hears from his counterparts in the US. For instance, he feels the Jamaican and Caribbean influence on the foundation of hip hop culture is under-reported by his American peers who, because of nationalism, see everything through pro-American lens.
"So when you're looking at who are the best rappers, who are the most influential, the most prolific, its coming out through that pro-American lens, but if you look at the hard fact what you see is that without Jamaica, there's no rap to be spoken of at all," says Higgins.
There's a section of the book, subtitled Jamaican Roots where Higgins notes that the first acknowledged rapper is Jamaica-born Coke La Rock; hip hop's founding father is Jamaica-born DJ Kool Herc, the culture's first acknowledged deejay, who moved from Jamaica to the Bronx. He also notes that Barbados-born Grandmaster Flash invented the 'turntablism' concept before it had a name and Afrika Bambaataa, the "godfather of hip hop" is of Barbadian and Jamaican lineage. The formation of hip hop culture is strongly related to Jamaica's sound system culture and the toasting rhyme styles of artistes like U-Roy and Yellow Man.
Greatest of all time
"Besides rap's founding father being Jamaican-born and bred, the rapper most often cited by fans and critics alike to be the greatest of all time, the Notorious B.I.G., also 'grew up in Jamaica', spending every summer of his first 16 years going 'back home' to Trelawny and hanging out with his extended family, including his disc jockey uncle, Dave, who played at local reggae clubs," writes Higgins.
Higgins notes that the Jamaican reggae influence and retentions in hip hop go much deeper and that rap and reggae, as art forms that carry tremendous global cultural impact, share many similarities. He writes: "Both are by-products of black ghetto life responding to the socio-economic conditions of exclusion, poverty, race and class oppression."
Higgins also notes that the overwhelming influence of a migrated Jamaican music product and performance style on rap music became evident on KRS - One's Criminal Minded (1987). "KRS-One uses considerable mic time on the reggae-influenced rap hit The Bridge Is Over to diss rival MC Shan over where he thinks rap's American roots lie. It's an exchange of recorded insults that Jamaican DJ's Prince Jazzbo and U Roy engaged in 10 years earlier," he writes.
Higgins feels that it is about time that everyone gives respect to the vital contributions of the many Jamaican-descended hip hoppers who paved the way for its global penetration as it continues to influence the shaping of the music.
Higgins is the co-author of two books: Hip Hop World and Much Master T: A VJ's Journey, and his work has been referenced in many popular culture essays around the world, while being cited in influential urban culture books such as Erykah Badu: The First Lady of Neo Soul.
Left: Afrika Bambaataa, the "godfather of hip hop" is of Barbadian and Jamaican lineages. Center: Barbados-born Grandmaster Flash invented the 'turntablism' concept before it had a name. Right: Hip hop's founding father Jamaica-born DJ Kool Herc.