Legendary rapper Black Thought bared his soul by means of a love letter to hip-hop as part of BET’s fiftieth anniversary of hip-hop programming. Within the four-and-a-half minute spoken phrase, the Roots rapper and co-founder lays out a complete historical past detailing hip-hop tradition’s affect on a large number of inventive areas together with dance, artwork, music and style throughout the globe.
Guiding listeners by means of a half-century of hip-hop, Black Thought pays homage to cultural pillars akin to Grandmaster Flash, first feminine rapper Sha-Rock and hip-hop “godmother” Sylvia Robinson, along with style architects Dapper Dan and June Ambrose. He seamlessly references turntable play with the road, “One subject of dialogue was whose fingers had been sooner,” effortlessly flowing into bars about graffiti tags and the evolution of hip-hop in New York Metropolis.
“Chilly blooded, no finances however we turned uncooked to finish the gang wars, what we began this thang for,” he raps of the style’s roots, occurring to unpack the explosion of hip-hop right into a full-fledged international motion by means of early foundational contributions by teams together with Public Enemy and Tribe Referred to as Quest and later expansions by artists and entrepreneurs Jay-Z, Pharrell, Drake and Kanye West.
The poem later touches on id and the battle for Black and brown style pioneers to be accepted into the mainstream. Now that they’re, Black Thought stresses the significance of not dropping sight of their roots. The Benny Growth-directed black-and-white video options breakdancers interspersed with Black Thought himself and visuals of style greats akin to Nipsey Hussle, Frequent, NWA and Salt-N-Pepa, and iconic places together with Harlem’s Apollo Theater and Detroit’s 8 Mile Street.
“From right here trying again, I say we did it, we made it, they hate it and mentioned we had been over and gone. I really feel it’s the transfer to say we proved all of them improper,” Black Thought raps. “Fifty years down the road we might spark this, my everlasting beloved hip-hop is the place our hearts stay.”
The artist and community additionally shared a clip on Instagram, captioning a joint publish: “That is Half 2 of our Love Letter to Hip Hop and in case you’re not maintaining, I would like you to. We hit up @blackthought to pen a tribute to Hip Hop as we rejoice its fiftieth and naturally, the pen is ridiculous.”
