THE SONS OF HIP HOP ARE DJS TOO

BY FAWN

It’s the summer of 2023 and we are halfway into Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary year. The celebration jumped off big this past February during the Grammys Awards Show. The genre, once snubbed by the Recording Academy, was welcomed with esteemed praise. Hip Hop legends from the past and its current day influencers, took to the stage in full Hip Hop regalia. DJ Kahlid, Jay Z, Lil Wayne, and Rick Ross closed out the show in a display of decadence and power, performing the song,“God Did.”

We are doing our part in honoring Hip-Hop by diving into its impact on the Black entertainment experience in Oregon. We decided to focus on some of our region’s hardest working DJs. After all, it was DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell), a JamaicanAmerican who earned the title, “Father of Hip-Hop” when he threw a back-to-school jam at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx on August 11 1973. Instead of playing the songs in full, he played only their instrumental sections, or breaks. During these breaks, his friend Coke La Rock hyped up the crowd with the mic, and the audience went wild and Hip Hop was born.

DJs across the world continue to be hugely influential in sustaining this complex genre. On a recent Black Beat Podcast with Flossin Media host John Washington, DJ Michael Morris (Michael Morris), DJ Solo (Solomon Kofi), and DJ P.I.Z (Ron Smith) chopped it up, reminiscing on the early pioneers of Hip Hop they admire, how they moved from house parties into nightclubs, and how being a Black DJ, drawing large majority Black crowds can be perceived as intimidating to certain oligarchies in Portland’s bureaucratic systems.

One of Oregon’s most seasoned spin masters is DJ Michael Morris who has been active for nearly 40 years. He caught the DJ bug early as an adolescent.

“As a kid, we used to take our stereos to house parties in shopping carts. We were doing cassette tapes back then, making mix tapes before mixtapes was a thing” laughed Morris. “In high school I got involved in the band program and then gravitated into working in radio. I couldn’t stand the repetitiveness of radio though, having to play only certain songs because of advertising, so I got out and started doing more parties and clubs. When I think of early memories of Hip Hop artists there are so many. Of course, Run DMC, LL Cool J and Kurtis Blow come to mind, and then I think of Too Short who started a lot of stuff out here on the West Coast” shared Morris.

Another long-standing Oregon based DJ is Ron Smith, aka DJ P.I.Z. He was one of the first African DJs to play in popular Portland nightclubs of the 80s and 90s like the Red Sea, Seges, and Ballzers. Honorable mentions for Smith when thinking about early Hip Hop artists also include Method Man and Redman. Smith shared admiration for his DJ associate Morris.

“The fact that we even had places to play back then was because of DJs Like Michael Morris and others who held the line,” recalls Smith. “The Hip Hop fight was going on politically and in order for Black people to be able to do our shows freely, we had to find pockets within the community to hold shows, but it was a struggle. Guys like Michael helped keep it going no matter what.”

Solomon Kofi, aka DJ Solo, was born and raised in Ghana Africa where he was a part of the entertainment community. He moved to Portland in 2007 to chase the Dream.

“Early memories of Hip Hop for me came from performers like Nas, I was a big fan. We were listening to a lot of Hip Hop in Africa, more so than sounds from our Motherland at that time. When I first moved to America, I started playing at house parties and making connections. Then I moved into playing lounges. My first gig was at a space called Afrique and then things just took off from there,” shared Kofi, who has been highly influential in elevating Afrobeats into Oregon’s club scene. This is a unique blend of African Dancehall mixed with American Hip-Hop influences.

Afrobeats isn’t the first to mash up Hip Hop with another genre. All three DJs pointed out that R&B melded with Hip Hop in a big way in the 90s with Mary J. Blige and P-Diddy leading the pack As Black DJs who often draw majority Black crowds to their events, they admit that they can still face ongoing bias and prejudices from past perceptions of Hip Hop culture.

“Back in the day, they were closing clubs down if they were playing Hip Hop. OLCC (Oregon Liquor Control Commission) would come in and put stipulations on them such as you had to close by midnight and keep your blinds open,” recalls Morris who doesn’t play as many club gigs today as he used to in part because of the drama. “We don’t really go for that anymore; we’ll just do our own event.

Indeed, many Black owned or operated night clubs were shuttered by OLCC from the 1990s to mid 2000s only to be reopened under White ownership activating the space similarly to their Black predecessors but without the harassment.

For DJ Solo, and DJ P.I.Z, who are more active in Portland’s night club scene, there is still deep frustration.

“I have people reach out to me all the time, who say we want you to DJ over here but we don’t want you to promote. I was like, hold up, you want my vibes but not my people? Why is that?” asked Kofi.

They have experienced first-hand that Black DJs drawing large Black crowds are perceived more of a risk than White DJs, playing the same music for majority White crowds.

“If you go to other cities with professional sports teams, often you will find a club owned by one of the players, but not in Portland. It is still too much of a liability,” shared Morris.

Despite the perceptions, each DJ is hopeful for what they see happening in the Portland markets. Black diasporas are starting to blend, congregating through music.

“We have put in our work to bring Africans and African Americans together in a space. Now you’re seeing other events like Black Girls Brunch, Melanin, and Brown Sugar all doing their thing in Portland,” Kofi pointed out.

With most of the Blacks moving into Portland coming from bigger cities they are hungry for this connection. “We shouldn’t have to be forced to water down the culture because Hip Hop is a culture and a lifestyle,” concluded Kofi

Listen to more of this conversation on Flossin Media TV YouTube Channel or Black Beat Podcast_ Hip Hop 50th Anniversary.

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