This 'hip-hop historian' shares his story, from dancing on stage with James Brown at five to making beats with the best.
, who performs as Nipplife, considers himself a"hip-hop historian." It's not because of any formal studies, but from witnessing firsthand the genre's evolution since its inception. Raised in Harlem and the Bronx, he was immersed in hip-hop culture from a young age.
Nipper ended up in Colorado, and found that hip-hop fans here were primarily listening to West Coast hip-hop, which he had never heard."It was a big culture shock, but to me personally, it taught me a whole other side of the hip-hop culture, which was on the West Coast," he says."I didn't know anything about N.W.A., Sir Mix-a-Lot, none of that. I was like, 'Whoa, this is a whole other vibe.' Being a musician, I heard the different cadences in the music and the samples.
Nipper laments how hip-hop took a self-destructive turn, when its influence could have instead been leveraged for good:"It's helped a lot of people, and that's why I wish it could turn more positive — because it really has power. The same power it has to be negative, it has that power to be positive. I think there's going to be something soon where...
Another foundational element of hip-hop that's gone by the wayside is off-the-dome freestyle. In his 58 years, Nipper has only written one rhyme, and that was actually borrowed from a middle school classmate, Robbie Rock."I would bang on the desk, and he would rhyme. That was the first time I kind of heard the rhymes. And I said, 'Yo, make me one.' It was 'Hello, my mellows, my name is Robbie, transmitted to you from a third galaxy,' and I just switched my name.
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