S12 E33: Delaware State of the Arts - Greg Watkins - AllHipHop.com

Step into the vibrant world of hip hop with "Grouchy" Greg Watkins, the founder of AllHipHop.com. We're thrilled to have him as our guide as we navigate the pulsating journey of hip hop, right from that climactic day on August 11th, 1973, when it all began, to its evolution into an unbeatable cultural phenomenon. We're celebrating half a century of hip hop, and what's better than doing it in Delaware, a state with significant contributions to this genre.

Gear up for a sneak peek into the Delaware Hip Hop Summit Celebration, which promises a multicultural extravaganza marking the 50th anniversary of hip hop. The event will be a homage to the early hip hop days, the legacy of Delaware artists, and their global impact. From workshops, activities, exhibitions to heart-thumping DJ showcases, graffiti, panel discussions, there's a lot in store. So, get ready to soak in the rich tapestry of hip hop culture, its roots, and the extent of its influence today.

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is committed to supporting the arts and cultivating creativity to enhance the quality of life in Delaware. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. Learn more at Arts.Delaware.Gov.

Delaware State of the Arts is a weekly podcast that presents interviews with arts organizations and leaders who contribute to the cultural vibrancy of communities throughout Delaware. Delaware State of the Arts is provided as a service of the Division of the Arts, in partnership with NEWSRADIO 1450 WILM and 1410 WDOV.

Transcript

Andy Truscott: 0:09

For Delaware State of the Arts. I'm Andy Truscott. My guest today is Grouchy Greg Watkins, the founder of allhiphopcom, a website that has been doing innovative business in the music space since its inception in 1997. The site's mission continues to be the same as it was then a place to share news articles and the love of all things hip hop. Most importantly, the site has an incredible reach, which achieves largely thanks to Watkins' knowledge and expertise in the online advertising space. Greg, thanks so much for being here. We're talking about an upcoming event that's going to be hosted at the Delaware Art Museum on October 7th, which is the 50th anniversary of hip hop inaugural hip hop cultural summit presented by allhiphopcom and the Delaware Art Museum. Greg, tell us more about it and why this was such an important program to bring to the Delaware Art Museum.

Greg Watkins: 1:01

Andy. Well, first of all, thank you for having me as a guest on the podcast. I'm a big fan. Delaware has a very rich history of hip hop culture that we wanted to celebrate, especially since it's the 50th anniversary of hip hop music and a lot of people don't realize the rich history that Delaware has in terms of, you know, being an act, having an active community of rappers since the early 80s. So we really wanted to put something together that does two things, an event together that does two things that highlights the contributions that artists in Delaware have made to the scene that inspired people like myself to pursue a career in hip hop and in the hip hop industry, and also highlighting the foundational, you know fathers, the founding fathers of the genre, many of whom will be present during the event on October 7th.

Andy Truscott: 2:05

For those that might not understand or be aware of why we're calling this the 50th anniversary, talk to us a little bit about where or how hip hop is being founded 50 years ago and kind of the event that we credit for its founding.

Greg Watkins: 2:20

Yeah, yeah, no problem. So hip hop, you know was. The official birthday of hip hop is August 11th 1973. And you know that's the date that DJ Cool Herk, who's considered the founder of hip hop, and his sister Cindy, hosted a back to school party in a community room at 1520 Cedric Avenue in the Bronx, and that day and that event is considered the date that hip hop culture officially kicked off. And so, you know, on August 11, 2023, it was the official celebration of hip hop's 50th anniversary as a genre of music. And so that's why, you know, this year is considered the 50th anniversary of hip hop and it's a big milestone.

Greg Watkins: 3:17

You know, 50 years is a long time for the genre to have been in existence, especially given the fact that most people thought it was going to be a fad, and now it's turned into the dominant form of music. It, you know, encapsulates fashion, art, technology. You know hip hop is intertwined in a little bit of everything that we do, even the way we speak now in terms of mainstream. You know linguistics and lingo. You know words like chill out are, you know, directly from. You know, hip hop culture.

Andy Truscott: 3:53

Greg, you've been around the scene, obviously, for those 50 years. Talk to us about how you've seen hip hop transform, how you've seen it embed itself even further into the mainstream American culture, and why do you think it's so important that it's done so.

Greg Watkins: 4:08

Well, you know to answer the first question, I've seen it evolve from, you know, something that was done in the streets, meaning break dancing, rapping. You know DJing and turntabling. You know these are things that were not mainstream or part of the mainstream culture when I was growing up. And by the 90s, you know, I would say the mid 90s you could see that it was starting to break through, with, you know, a variety of artists that were, you know, making records that were becoming more mainstream.

Greg Watkins: 4:49

You know, by the 2000s, you know, it started to become the dominant form of music and from you know, 2005, up until now, it's just been, you know, the best selling genre of music in the music industry. You know it's important because this is a form of American music that was created here in America and there's only, you know, two other real forms of music that we consider, you know, being created here in America. You know country music, obviously, blues and R&B, and then hip hop excuse me and jazz, and so you know America has created this, you know, new form of expression that has been exported all around the world. Everybody in, you know, a variety of countries are, you know are doing hip hop and it's the number one form of music in almost every country.

Andy Truscott: 5:50

Event itself aims to delve into the foundations of hip hop, the movement of hip hop. Talk to us about how you plan to explore that and what attendees can expect from attending an event such as this.

Greg Watkins: 6:02

Yeah, so we have, you know, a full day planned at the Delaware Art Museum. The event focuses on the four elements of hip hop and what we call the fifth element of hip hop. The first element of hip hop are rapping, break, dancing, and the second element of hip, turntablism and art or graffiti, and we have. And then the fifth element is knowledge, and so we have a full day focused around those five concepts. So there'll be art exhibitions from local artists.

Greg Watkins: 6:37

There's gonna be a graffiti exhibit from a variety of graffiti legends, there's a DJ showcase from the man who invented the needle drop as well as scratching, and then panel discussions with local artists who have made a impact on the scene here in the 80s and 90s, and then a national hip hop discussion with some of the founding fathers of hip hop music. So throughout the day there'll be a guided tour. We've partnered with the news journal to surface images that have never been seen before from the 70s and 80s centered around Delaware hip hop culture, as well as news articles that people are gonna be able to walk through and look at and read throughout the day. That I mean really interesting coverage from the news journal in the 80s and early 90s centered around hip hop. There'll be a break dancing exhibition. We're also gonna highlight some of the females in hip hop who have made an impact for the culture.

Andy Truscott: 7:46

The panels you talk about offer a variety of diverse perspectives, and can you share some of the topics or themes that these panels will cover to deepen the understanding of hip hop culture for those that may not know more, than it just being a style of music?

Greg Watkins: 8:03

Yes. So for the local hip hop panels, we have young guru, who is a Delaware native. He's worked on all of Jay-Z's albums. He was the in-house engineer for Rockefeller Records and any big hit record that was released by Rockefeller young guru has had a hand in. We also have Hezekiah, who's a local legend, who's recorded with the roots in Talib Kweli, and a variety of other artists Flex and Haided who have produced records for Rihanna.

Greg Watkins: 8:37

We have Marketech, who has been releasing records since the 90s and as a big international following, and then we have Grand G, who is considered one of the founding fathers of Delaware hip hop culture, and each one of these artists are gonna talk about their journey, the pitfalls, the ups, the downs and how Delaware and being from Delaware has impacted their careers. And then for the panel discussion that's titled Insights from the Legends, we have Grand Master Kaz, who is one of considered one of the three founding fathers of hip hop culture in terms of being an emcee. He was a member of the Cold Crush Brothers. He's featured in the classic hip hop film Wild Style. We have Joe Konzo, who is one of the first hip hop photographers he's known as of the New York Times and he's labeled him as the man who took hip hop's baby pictures. So he's been capturing the culture since the early 1970s.

Greg Watkins: 9:43

He's gonna be there speaking about his journey through hip hop, the multiculturalism of hip hop in its early days. He's also going to be showcasing his book, as well as some of his never before seen photos, which he's actually donated to the Delaware Art Museum. And then we have Grand Wizard Theodore, who is the creator of the scratch and the needle drop. He's also featured in Wild Style and another hip hop movie classic called Scratch, and he's going to give a talk and a 30 minute exhibition on DJing and how to DJ. So it's gonna be a really interesting day filled with a variety of events. We also have a break dancing crew coming down called Hip Hop Fundamentals and, in addition to break dancing and showcasing themselves break dancing throughout the day, they're gonna give a workshop as well. So it's a full day filled with activities. There's gonna be food trucks, art happening on the outside, weather permitting DJs all day. It's really gonna be a good party in the art museum and then the panels are gonna happen in the theater inside of the art museum.

Andy Truscott: 11:04

It's very likely that people don't stand just the impact that Delaware artists have had on Hip Hop. Talk to us a little bit about those that have had the influence on the style and or the creation of the art Just right here from Delaware.

Greg Watkins: 11:18

There were a few rappers in the early days, specifically a rap group named Twin B. Twin B featured two Twin Rappers, mark Brown and Mike Brown, and their images and their stories are gonna be featured and told throughout the day. Unfortunately, Mark Brown was murdered in gang violence in the mid-80s and that slowed down Mike Brown's career in terms of being a rap group. But there were others Lightning Lee, doc D and DJ Cut Whiz, gran G, and there was this really awesome project that came out in 89 called Project X and that was released on a local record label called Tomorrow's Gold Records, and the gentleman who founded that, troy Husser, is also gonna be in attendance. This was one of the first big records to come out of Delaware. I mean they recorded it in New York with a legendary engineer, ivan Dr Butcher Rodriguez, who was responsible for engineering a variety of hip hop classics of the day, and so this was the first big record that really inspired every rapper in the state when this project came out, and everybody on the project was from Delaware. In fact, one of the records of Riverside Bucket 2.6, which is considered a hip hop classic here in Delaware, still has legs to this day. In fact, one of the local young rappers out here who has a great buzzing career, young Sada. He actually has a song named Bucket 2.6, named after the original record. So this album, 30 years later, is still having an impact on the local hip hop scene.

Greg Watkins: 13:08

So you know, delaware had a very active scene really, because right up the road we had Power 99 and Lady B who had a show each Sunday called Street Beat from 12 to 4. And that's where you got to hear all of the latest hip hop records in the 80s. And so you know another record label, pop Art, was right up the street in Philadelphia and you know they had a lot of the big New York rappers Roxanne Chante, biz Markey, the Juice Crew. Their records were released on Pop Art. And because Pop Art was here in Philly, a lot of the local record stores, like Wonderland and Rainbow, had those records as soon as they came out. So we would be in those stores in the 80s getting those records, taking them home, putting them on breakdancing to the 12 inches. So you know the scene here has always been very rich and that's one of the things that we plan to showcase and highlight during the day.

Andy Truscott: 14:07

Do you hope attendees leave the summit with a deeper appreciation of?

Greg Watkins: 14:11

Yeah, you know I hope attendees leave with a few things. You know one a deeper appreciation for the impact that the local Delaware hip hop scene had upon myself, young guru, and you know any of the other people who have come out of Delaware and you know went on to make careers out of this, and to really connect the local artists and the local community back to the early origins of hip hop in Delaware. You know, if this stuff isn't surfaced, it's easy to think that you know that well, what was happening in Delaware in the 80s? Or you know what was the scene like in Delaware in the 80s. Was there even a scene? And there always has been. You know a rich scene and you know artists releasing music from Delaware since the 80s.

Greg Watkins: 15:06

So I really want people to leave with a sense of pride in the Delaware hip hop community and carry that forward with them when they decide to get into the music business or rap or do anything in arts and entertainment.

Greg Watkins: 15:22

It's important to have some pride in your hometown when you, you know, decide that if this is a genre or if being in media is something you're interested in doing. A lot of times I hear people say, well, what's in Delaware when I'm on the road, or sometimes even people say where is Delaware? And you know, I want people who live here to leave with a sense of pride in their state and the accomplishments. And then the second thing is is really understanding the impact that hip hop culture has had, you know, on a nationwide level, you know, around the world, you know, and so you know understanding that this is an art form, you know, and it's something that should be celebrated and really cherished as an American art form. And so, seeing the early images, hearing the actual stories from the people who pioneered the genre, you know the audience should really be enlightened by some of these stories.

Andy Truscott: 16:28

How do you envision the event continuing to contribute to the ongoing growth of hip hop culture in Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic region?

Greg Watkins: 16:37

Well, yes, you know this is the first event that's going to be an annual celebration at the Delaware Art Museum of Celebrating Hip Hop Culture.

Greg Watkins: 16:45

So this is the first annual hip hop cultural summit and you know the goal is really to inspire the young people who want to be a part of this genre and really show them you know what really goes into it, beyond just rapping, and what hip hop actually is, because hip hop is a culture and it's much more than just picking up the mic and, you know, wrapping some words, and so the goal is really to inspire the next generation of artists, business people and, you know, visual arts artists who want to participate in this genre. Hip-hop is a multi-billion dollar a year industry and so it's something that you can have a career in and it's. You know there's a variety of paths that you can take beyond just rapping, and we hope to show and inspire all of the different pathways that a young person may take through being inspired by hip-hop culture, so you don't just have to rap. You know this encompasses everything from fashion to technology, to business.

Andy Truscott: 17:59

You bring up a great point, which is that hip-hop is not just surface level of what we see, of just the performance right, but also the career paths that operate in support of that individual or in support of venues or the craft in general. Talk to us a little bit about some of the success stories you've heard of individuals that may have gone down the path of supporting the craft but not necessarily being right in front of camera.

Greg Watkins: 18:26

I mean there's tons of examples, you know. I mean we could just bring up Jay-Z, you know. Obviously he started off as a rapper but he's by far become the most successful businessman you know, and has managed to become a multi-billionaire off of hip-hop culture. Same thing with, you know, sean Diddy, combs, dr Dre you know you've got executives like Andre Harrell Rest in Peace Steve Stout these are all gentlemen who have made vast fortunes by pursuing the business side of hip-hop. Russell Simmons I mean the list goes on Sylvia Rohn, a legendary female executive in the culture, and you know these are all people who have pursued successful careers as entrepreneurs.

Greg Watkins: 19:16

And then you have people like myself and my partner, chuck Jigsaw Creekmer, and Young Guru, who are behind the scenes in terms of operating businesses that are centered around hip-hop culture, be it a record label or a website, or, you know, being one of the greatest engineers, which, young Guru is to come out of the culture. I mean there's many different paths that you can choose at this point, because hip-hop has become so embedded in everything. Even you know, when you turn on TV and you watch ESPN or any of the sports shows, you know, almost everything leans very heavily towards hip-hop culture in some way, shape or form.

Andy Truscott: 19:58

Talk to us about logistics when, when, what the website is.

Greg Watkins: 20:03

It's the 50th anniversary of hip-hop culture. It's the inaugural hip-hop cultural summit. It's presented by allhiphopcom and the Delaware Art Museum, and you can go to allhiphopcom slash 50 to see the guest lineup, which we are, you know, constantly adding guests and speakers, as well as the itinerary for the day, which is Saturday, October 7th 2023, from 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is free and open to the public. We really are looking forward to everybody coming out. You know there's going to be food trucks and a variety of things happening all around the Art Museum for the full fan of the day. The event is family-friendly. There will be activities for your children inside of the Delaware Art Museum. So I just want everybody who's thinking about attending to understand that this is a family-friendly event and we look forward to having people of all races, all backgrounds attending the event.

Andy Truscott: 21:08

Greg, thank you so much for that context and I'm so excited to see you at the Art Museum on October 7th. I think it's so important for those locally and even in the Mid-Atlantic region to really make their way out and be surrounded by the images, the music that is so prevalent nowadays in what we do. Delaware State of the Arts is a weekly podcast that presents interviews with arts organizations and leaders who contribute to the cultural vibrancy of communities throughout Delaware.