Humanz of Hip Hop Stories

Eekwol – Hip Hop Artist 

• Human Book Title: Hip Hop First – Locating Identity Within Complex Intersectional (Her)stories
• Soundtrack of my story: Tomboy by Princess Nokia

I was first introduced to rap and Hip Hop when I was about 13 years old. I grew up in cities and spent a lot of time at my home community of Muskoday First Nation in Treaty Six Territory in what is now known as Saskatchewan. I was at my Uncle's house on the rez and he had "satellite" TV set up illegally, so we could watch channels from the US.

We (me and siblings and cousins) discovered BET and from that day forward, Rap City became our gospel. While mainstream rap was prevalent at the time, I had never heard conscious and underground rap before and it spoke to me on a very deep level at a young age. I had always loved music and writing stories, so the idea of telling life and identity type stories over a beat was mind blowing to me. I was hooked.

As a girl in Hip Hop, I was always up against patriarchy in ways I couldn't articulate until I was older. I wore baggy clothes and walked and talked solid so I would get respect and be treated as one of the boys. That plan was never fool proof as I can't count the amount of times I endured disrespectful behaviour and advances, yet I persevered. Not because I wanted to prove something, but because I loved Hip Hop with a deep passion. It was an intimate relationship with the beat, the lyrics, the graf, the dance that went far beyond the realities of being a woman in a culture that is predominantly male.

To this day, as I am older and much more aware of how systemic colonialism promotes gendered violence, social power structures and internalized colonialism. I use this knowledge in my music. For me, Hip Hopis many things and has many definitions depending on location and experience. However, above all, the foundations and historical roots of Hip Hop must always be acknowledged. Out of respect and responsibility, I speak to this history whenever I am given the opportunity to talk about my experience. Lastly, I have organically evolved into a mentor for many "girls" who rap and love Hip Hop, so I am grateful. I love seeing a new generation of powerful voices emerge. It shows me that Hip Hop as a culture and community continues to grow and adapt.

DJ Lynnée Denise – Black Music Scholar

• Human Book Title: Chasing Samples, Chasing Histories
• Soundtrack of my story: Rock Steady by Aretha Franklin

My personal relationship with Aretha Franklin, the one that took shape without my mother’s hand, began with a song penned by rap-duo from Long Island, New York named EPMD (Eric and Parish Making Dollars). The song, “I’m Housin’,” was the third single from Strictly Business, the group’s 1988 debut album.

For years, I’d listened without knowledge of the fact that DJs and producers were using the recordings of Black women to build this emerging genre called rap music. Through samples, rap music had become a repository for neglected histories, multiple genres of music, and usable ideas. Many of us knew that James Brown was the most sampled artist of all time, but few of us understood how intricately the music of Black women was being used to shape the art of sampling. Eventually, I understood sampling to be a useful device for decoding cultural information; who recorded what, when, why and where.

Ty Harper – Radio and TV Producer

• Human Book Title: A work in progress ...
• Soundtrack of my story: Learn 2 Earn by Mathematik

Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to be a producer. To use the artifacts of my culture: Black music, Black art, Black film, Black history and critical thought; to tell, imagine, to ponder and to celebrate the past, present and future traditions that shape my Black communities. So that is what I've done, and will continue to do.

Dr. Audrey Hudson – Hip Hop Head and Scholar

• Human Book Title: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
• Soundtrack of my story: Doo-Wop (That Thing) by Lauryn Hill

My dad was a DJ from Jamaica. He came to Canada with little else other than his crates of records. My love of music stems from him and the array of music that filled all the corners of my house. The sounds of reggae, country, r&b, rock and jazz emanated through my dad’s homemade speakers through the house. Music opened an entry to comprehend my mixed identity and my passion for art.

DJ Craig Brooklyn – Sound Designer and Curator of Sound

• Human Book Title: Unknown Artist, Unknown Song Title
• Soundtrack of my story: Low End Theory, album by A Tribe Called Quest, The Coming, album by Busta Rhymes and Radio album by LL Cool J. 

Growing up, every Sunday morning there would be music playing in my house. My siblings and I literally woke up to the sounds of Bob Marley, Sister Nancy, The Heptones, etc. vibrating through the walls and the floors. Music has always been my soul as far as I can remember, walking with my fisher price turntables and three records everywhere I go.

When I first heard the boom bap sounds of Herbie Hancock's Rockit and Africa Bambataa's Planet Rock, I knew Hip Hop and h.e.r culture would always be a part of my life. Fast forward to my adulthood, I find that Hip Hop has been intertwined in every aspect of my life from behind the tables to Hip Hop + social issues seminars. Some would say Hip Hop has saved their lives, I would say it's always been mine.

Dr. Francesca D'Amico-Cuthbert

• Human Book Title: Journeying Through Hip Hop to Social Consciousness
• Soundtrack of my story: G.O.D. (Gaining One's Definition) by Common featuring Ce-Lo

My love for Hip Hop has always been rooted in the culture’s capacity to think critically and self-reflexively, practice an ethics of care and solidarity, and challenge the status quo. As a member of the Hip Hop generation, I began taking a deep interest in the culture as a young dance and music practitioner.

Once I enrolled in graduate school, my research interests reflected my desire to combine my own artistic practice with my love for history, social justice and Hip Hop studies. As a historian of Black Popular Music in the era of mass incarceration, I have generated scholarship that demonstrates how emcees have used Hip Hop to construct complex ethnographies, transform dispositions of power, and unmask the modes and mechanisms of a persistent and haunting coloniality.

In my new work on Toronto Hip Hop, I am collecting oral histories in order to archive Toronto Rap music’s relationship to commerce, anti-Black market segmentation and the availability of state revenue streams and marketplace exposure. More recently, I have also begun working alongside educators, activists and some of the architects of Hip Hop culture on the education committee for the Universal Museum of Hip Hop – an institution dedicated to the preservation of Hip Hop’s history which is set to open in 2024 in the Bronx, New York City.