Hip hop’s architectural roots and what you may not know about hip hop

Famous developer Robert Moses created the catalyst for which hip-hop formed and parallels how the Berlin Wall provoked protests and revolution in Germany. His plan for the Cross Bronx Expressway (based on Le Corbusier’s plan for the center of Paris) had a devastating impact on communities expelled by the development for decades to come. Although none of the main concepts from Le Corbusier’s plan were used in Moses’ plan, this became the typology for low-income housing across the nation. To build the 7-mile expressway, in 1940’s New York, 1,500 families consisting of 60,000 residents would be displaced (Sedensky 2001). Those that could afford to move out did and those that couldn’t ended up living in monotonous brick towers, shown below.

Once connected communities, the North and South Bronx were now divided by the expressway. New York: A Documentary Film analyzes how the reality of Bronx neighborhoods at the time was in stark contrast to how developer Robert Moses portrayed them. East Tremont was one of these neighborhoods and although it was a low-income area, it was culturally and materially autonomous (Burns 2001). Moses made it seem as though not much was going on in these vibrant areas and felt that “New York has too many critiques, we have to get rid of some of them.”1520 Sedgwick Ave. in New York would soon be known as the official birthplace of hip-hop as a result of Moses’ development in these areas. Architect Michael Ford discusses the impact on these communities and how it spawned hip-hop in his TEDtalk. Ford States “hip-hop is modernism’s post-occupancy report. Hip-hop was born from modernism and lived in modernism. Most of the lyrics in many hip-hop songs bring up counterpoints and commentary about modern architecture. Hip-hop is the voice of the voiceless. It is the voice of the un-consulted end-users of public housing and modernism. And if we can listen to the music we can understand just how unsuccessful this architecture was and we can understand the injustices that are faced by people of color who live in communities based on modernism.”

The critical intelligence of black people (and people of color) is often underestimated in our society. As a society, we tend to avoid the tough questions or pretend to be oblivious to issues not directly affecting us. Lecrae, an American hip-hop artist, asks these questions in his TEDtalk, Why do we glorify violence? Why are black communities consistently oppressed and also blamed for their own oppression?

Lecrae also speaks to the journey and path hip-hop has taken and its place in popular culture,

“We found ourselves in a nation that saw us as criminals, so we embraced it.” In the 80s, hip-hop’s target audience was Black male and urban. By the 90s and 2000s it has spread out to the suburbs, and the largest purchaser of hip-hop were white suburban males.” “So when the music was indigenous to its own community it was positive, socially aware, and anti-drug. When it broadened out and diversified to the suburbs, it embraced criminality, sold it for profit.”

Many confuse popular rap music with hip-hop and the reality is that what we hear on the radio for the most part isn’t representative of true hip-hop, but it’s an appropriation or misdirection of the culture itself. According to a poll published by the Pew Research Center in 2008, more than 70 percent of Americans believed that rap had an overall negative impact on society.

In Nas’ song ‘I Know I Can’ his message is clearly contradictory to what most Americans believe “…b-boys and girls listen up. You can be anything In this world, in God we trust. An architect, doctor, maybe an actress, but nothing comes easy, it takes much practice.” Nas is encouraging people to become architects to build their own communities. And when we do that we can have design justice.

I think we have to question how we as a society tend to accept what is popular and relatable and pay attention to why we may reject certain things. We must ask ourselves if this was a country song singing about drinking and partying all night would it be seen in the same negative light as a hip-hop song?

As a hip-hop fan for most of my life, I’ve heard the truth that hides behind popular hip-hop. Unfortunately, the hip-hop art and culture that I have come to know and love differ greatly from what most Americans hear and perceive it to be. 

I’d like to leave you with my list of must-hear hip-hop artists that may change your perspective. Some new, most are old. (I’ve left out many but enjoy some of my favorites)

Talib Kweli
Mos Def
A Tribe Called Quest
Tupac Shakur
Nas
Kendrick Lamar
Jurassic 5
Lauryn Hill
Wu-Tang Clan
Dead Prez
Outkast
People Under the Stairs
Mobb Deep
De La Soul
Digable Planets
The Roots

References

Sedensky, Matt

2001   Decades Later, Doing the Cross Bronx Expressway Right. The New York Times. October 7, 2001. 

Burns, Ric

    2001   New York: A Documentary Film. “The City and the World.” PBS. October 1, 2001.

Ploschnitzki, Patrick

    2017   Robert Moses, the Construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway and its impact on the    Bronx. University of Arizona. December 11, 2017. 

https://www.academia.edu/8799288/_Robert_Moses_the_construction_of_the_Cross-Bronx_Expressway_and_its_impact_on_the_Bronx_

Ricciulli, Valeria

2019   In the 1970s the Bronx was burning, but some residents were rebuilding. Curbed. May 3, 2019.

https://ny.curbed.com/2019/5/3/18525908/south-bronx-fires-decade-of-fire-vivian-vazquez-documentary