when i started the hip hop story for National Geographic Magazine two years ago, i really did not know where to begin….i was lost…there was not one single rap cd on my shelf….i mean, i was pretty much from the bob dylan, stones, doors, jerry garcia generation….if it was not for my two sons , bryan and erin, i would not even have a clue as to what followed….even then, i was pretty much locked into radiohead, phish, u2, rem, jack johnson and still bob dylan!!
i mean, i knew the "mainstream" rappers…snoop, nelly, 50 cent, diddy, jay-z, eminem and i had tracked the life and art of tupac just because he just always seemed so interesting to me….but, that was really about it…and i had not really listened….i felt the beat yes, but i could not always understand the words….so i downloaded all of their lyrics…and i read, read, read, and read…that was when i realized this was a story about WORDS….what these guys had to say, was what the story would be…
i ended up in the south bronx projects…where kool herc, afrika bambaata, grand master flash and a whole slew of others , in the early 80’s, took nothing but what they had to say and some beat up turntables and created an art form that vibrates and shakes concrete around the world….
one day i met "uptown" and "ruckus" (above)…they had both been childhood buddies….their mothers were friends…..they both went to jail when they were 18 or so and they both got out about 10 years later….while they were "inside" they wrote about their lives….when i met them they were living the life in the "’hood"…mostly journalists find out what is going on by asking questions…i built my rapport with these guys by NOT asking any questions….listening works…
i brought them my books …i took a few snapshots and brought them back the next day…and new pictures everyday thereafter…i let them take me where they wanted to go and do what they wanted to do…i let the lyrics i had downloaded and the lyrics that "uptown" and "ruckus" wrote sink deep into the recesses of my brain….i knew i was on to something special….i did not pretend to be anything other than who i was…my only thought was that maybe i could be a type of "bridge" to other white folks in my generation…
one day "ruckus" invited me for sunday dinner in his small apartment on the 18th floor of the Bronx River Projects…..i was honored….out of respect , i showed up in my sunday best…yup, coat and tie….i figured if they were going to invite me into their homes, i would invite them into mine….from that day forward there was an exchange of friendship and comraderie i had never experienced in all of my travels….this was as far away from home as i had ever been….
when they came to my brooklyn loft and got on the computer and looked at my photographs of them, they really got into it….even telling me things like "yo dave, the lighting in this picture sucks" …. they poured over all of my photography books and were very proud to be involved with National Geographic even though they were not subscribers….they each walked out one day with new copies of "Magnum Stories"….they were into the "collaboration" we had going….we all knew we were making some kind of history…..a document where they were the authors…i was just a facilitator…
so, my whole project started with these two unknowns….they have dreams….they want to be like nelly and snoop….for the money? sure!! but, mostly to be recognized as poets, as artists, chroniclers of their world….one day several months later i tried to call "uptown" from snoop dogg’s studio in los angeles….i wanted it to be a great moment….but, "uptown’s" cell phone was out of credit….but he loved the story later anyway….
i took my lessons from "uptown" and "ruckus" and traveled around the world to meet other rappers in other cultures…..paris, barcelona, israel/palestine, korea,thailand and finally to the heart of it all…africa…in senegal i met "jally" a senegalise griot….a story-teller….jally’s father , and grandfather and great grandfather and great great grandfather etc etc were griots….if your father is a griot, then you are a griot…there is no other path…and the griots passed on their beat, their rythem their ability to tell a story , to "rap" to their fellow slaves on ships that ended up on the shores of the americas….and from the cane sugar plantations and the cotton fields came gospel, jazz, blues, rock n’roll and then all the way back and all the way forward to "rap"….
some of my work appears this month in National Geographic Magazine, with a brilliant essay by James McBride ….some of it online as a video on Geographic interactive…..if i do a book someday, the text will be the words of "Uptown" and "Ruckus"…..i just hope they live to see it…because , you see, the life they lead can lead to fame and fortune, but more often leads to jail or death……this is just their fate….
but, my dream remains…..to be at a book signing somewhere with my "boyz from the hood" signing their books…..after all, it is their story, not mine….i just went along for the ride….
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