Now that we’ve had almost 48 hours to digest the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show. I’m ready to tell the world that it was the most culturally significant musical event of our lifetime. When Dr. Dre, Snoop, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and surprise guest, 50 Cent, hit the biggest stage in the world the mic was literally dropped.
Let me put it where the goats can get it for those that simply don’t understand. On September 16, 1979 the founder and CEO of Sugarhill Records, Silvia Robinson, released a song called Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang.
It was the very first commercially available rap record of all-time. I was in the seventh grade when it came out. For the first time in the lives of folks my age we had our own music. For the first time in our lives we weren’t listening to our parents music. I would assume this awakening for us was the same awakening our parents had when R&B music came out a generation before and like Rock and Roll was and like Jazz was for the generations before that.
However, when rap music came out they said that it wasn’t going to last. They said that it was a fad and that people wouldn’t embrace it. But who was they? “They” were powers that be that didn’t embrace us.
“They” didn’t understand that rap music came with a spirit called Hip Hop and that spirit had four pillars: Deejaying, B-boying (break dancing), Graffiti painting (artists) and emceeing. It was the total being of Hip Hop and it couldn’t be contained to just music.
Here was the greatest thing about hip hop. It wasn’t limited to only those that only had the talent to participate in the culture. The style and swagger of it embraced everyone from Urban America regardless of skin color. So you didn’t have to be a b-boy, deejay, artist or emcee to represent it. Your urban vibe represented it everyday of your life. When you got dressed in the morning for school your were Hip Hop. When you played sports you were Hip Hop. The Showtime Lakers were Hip Hop. Michael Jordan was Hip Hip. The J’s are Hip Hop. Deion Sanders was Hip Hop. The Fab Five were Hip Hop.
When you walked down the street you were Hip Hop. Hip Hop music is bigger than the sound of it. It’s the spirit of the vibe it gives off that our generation and the generations that have come after us can all feel.
Therefore, from September 16, 1979 to February 13, 2022 Hip Hop has shown the world that it did, in fact, survive but it not only survived but it has flourished to become the biggest genre of music on the planet. Not only did the halftime show represent Hip Hop but it represented the truest form of LA, Urban LA.
It took you to the spirit of Los Angeles. It took you straight to the gutter and the soul of what makes LA…well…LA. Only Hip Hop could have done that. Not R&B. Not Rock and Roll. Not Jazz. Not Acid Rock. And certainly not Country music. While I respect all genres of music. Only Hip Hop understands Urban life to the fullest because it is urban life and it sees everything.
When more than 70 percent of the NFL’s players are black and whether they grew up in the hood or the suburbs, they’re roots are all the same. Their family’s stories have come out of the worst that America has had to offer and they’ve survived just like Hip Hop. Urban America is Hip Hop.
The fact that we all witnessed our genre, telling our story, good or bad, on the biggest stage on the planet was mind-blowing. So yes, it was the biggest cultural event musically of our lifetime. You’ll have to live another 50 or 60 years to see anything close to the significance of that show. Stop me when I start lyin’!