When I learned that Jerry Heller, the former manager of NWA, passed away at the age of 75, I immediately thought of my brief time communicating with him. While conducting research in 2011 for my book 6 ‘N the Morning: West Coast Hip-Hop Music 1987-1992 & the Transformation of Mainstream Culture, I reached out to Mr. Heller to request an interview. He responded almost immediately, full of enthusiasm for not only the premise of the book, but also the opportunity to talk about that time.
In a recent story, Ansel Herz reported that a coalition of African American, Native American, and Latino families who have lost loved ones to police violence filed an initiative with the state to change the law and make it easier to prosecute police for use of deadly force in Washington. The institutional refusal to bring indictments in controversial, often racially involved cases of civilian deaths at the hands of law enforcement has been a consistent...
In the extended article that appears below historians Daudi Abe and Quintard Taylor explore the history of African Americans in Martin Luther King County from 1858 to 2014. They analyze the forces which encouraged people of African ancestry to settle in the county and discuss the rapid political, social, and economic changes that its black residents have faced since the first arrival, Manuel Lopes, came to the county in 1858.
Recently Major League Baseball celebrated its annual tribute to Jackie Robinson. While few would question the significance of Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier, Jackie Robinson Day provides an example of the United States’ continuing evolution as a multicultural nation.
For the last couple of decades much has been made of the racial achievement gap in America’s schools—the depression in academic success rates among African-American students which generally begins around middle school. In more recent times, a phenomenon known as the ‘discipline gap’ — the disproportionate suspension and expulsion of Black students — became a major subject of concern since students cannot succeed academically if they don’t attend school.
Sports have always been a tool to measure the cultural climate of U.S. society. The reign of Michael Jordan as global basketball ambassador during the 1980s and 1990s made the sport more accessible to greater numbers of people than ever before. Jordan expanded on OJ Simpson’s 1970s blueprint of a well-spoken, well-dressed, business-savvy, supremely talented athlete of color who was comfortable with the business crowd and who put race on the back burner.
Sometimes it can be difficult to quantify exactly what sports means beyond what happens between the lines. This quarter I started teaching a new class at Seattle Central Community College called Sports and Culture, which is timely given the run the Seattle Seahawks just completed.
As we arrive at the end of the 30-year tenure of David Stern as Commissioner of the National Basketball Association, some people are reflecting on his many accomplishments. Under his watch the once floundering NBA rose to massive levels of mainstream popularity and cultural influence with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the 1980s and Michael Jordan in the 1990s. However while that may be the dominant narrative within the national conversation, Stern’s legacy in the city of Seattle sounds much different.
From Dr. J to MJ, the dunks that shattered backboards and rocked our worlds.
Musically, it could be argued that the late 80’s and early 90’s holds the reputation of being one of the richest, shortest spans of musical flux. Cultural diversity practically exploded as rap seethed its way viscously across America, often to the dismay of older generations. Dr. Daudi Abe’s new book, ‘6 ‘n The Morning’ (out respect or adoration for the Ice T track of the same name), attempts to capture this volatile period, specifically between 1987 to 1992, with a defined focus on the West Coast of America.
When Sir Mix-A-Lot reached number one on the Billboard chart and won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Solo Rap Performance with his song “Baby Got Back,” Seattle hiphop was placed on
6 N The Morning: West Coast Hip-Hop Music 1987-1992 & the Transformation of Mainstream Culture [Daudi Abe] on Amazon.com. FREE shipping on qualifying offers. The world changed at 6 in the morning. Ice Cube = Malcolm X? Young MC = Martin Luther King, Jr.? West Coast hip-hop from 1987-1992 represents not only the most important time in hip-hop history
“The world changed at 6 in the morning. Ice Cube = Malcolm X? Young MC = Martin Luther King, Jr.? West Coast hip-hop from 1987-1992 represents not only the most important time in hip-hop history, but is one of the most historic and influential cultural and artistic movements of the 20th century. This new wave shifted the balance of power so that by the early 1990s Los Angeles had become the capital of the hip-hop nation. The broad appeal of West Coast hip-hop helped establish new cultural and racial norms which created a base of opportunity for Barack Obama to not only be taken seriously as a Presidential candidate less than two decades later, but win a second term as well.” -Publisher website
Buy “6 ‘N the Morning” from Over the Edge Books here.
In the late 1980s I was a college undergraduate in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was sitting in the cafeteria next to two white friends...
Hip Hop and the academic canon.
The City Collegian - The Dr. of Hip Hop
There have been a number of writings, recordings and television specials recently celebrating and discussing the "30th anniversary" of hip-hop...
Hip Hop as formal academic curriculum.
It has been a decade since the passing of Tupac Shakur, the hip-hop equivalent of Bob Marley and Elvis Presley, the iconic figures of reggae...
For the most part, kids listen to the music their parents listen to up until about the age of 9 or 10. Until that point, you generally have no say as to what radio station you listen to in the car or what gets played around the house. So it was for me as a 9-year-old at the end of 1979, when my pops took me to Dirt Cheap Records, which used to be right...
Underground Legends Vol. 1 - Kindle edition by Daudi Abe. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Underground Legends Vol. 1.
‘6 ’N The Morning: West Coast Hip-Hop Music 1987-1992 & the Transformation of Mainstream Culture’ by Daudi Abe Over the Edge, 473 pp., $12.99 Seattle writer and Seattle Central Community College instructor Daudi Abe has dedicated almost 500 pages to five years of West Coast hip-hop with his book (warning, long title) “6 ’N the Morning: West...
Daudi Abe is a professor of Humanities at Seattle Central Community College in Seattle, Washington. He holds a Ph.D. in education from the University of Washington, a master’s degree in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College Northwest, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Santa Clara University. Dr. Abe has authored several articles and essays on race, gender, hip-hop and education including “Hip-hop and the academic canon” in Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 4:3 (July 2009): 1-10, as well as several op-ed pieces in The Seattle Times. The native of Seattle specializes in urban cultural and music history and has recently published his book 6 ‘N the Morning: West Coast Hip-Hop Music 1987-1992 & the Transformation of Mainstream Culture (Over The Edge Books, 2013).
