Our Town

12th Annual NAMM Report: Part 1: 50 Years of Hip Hop Saves the NAMM Show

The NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Foundation stepped up to the plate on diversity, equity, and inclusion by acknowledging, awarding, and celebrating Hip Hop music “from the lens and expertise of its musicians, engineers, music brands, and gear used to create Hip Hop” during its NAMM Show (April 13-15) at the Anaheim Convention Center.

This pivotal decision is its saving grace in light of the fact the show has lost top brands that have been its backbone for decades – no Fender, Gibson, PRS, Marshall, Boss, Fodera Bass Guitars, Orange, Akai, a way smaller Seymour Duncan booth, and almost lost Sennheiser, if it were not for Neumann’s significant support of Brian Hardgroove’s 3D Mix Immersive Audio TEC Track Sessions.

Hardgroove, a musician, record producer, and member of Public Enemy, is a highly respected NAMM presenter who brings A-List industry experts to his TEC Tracks. This year he also brought in Chuck D, the co-founder of Public Enemy, social activist, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. Having Chuck D there ignited many new people to attend NAMM for certain.

In a phone interview with me, Hardgroove clarified, “I have had a great relationship with NAMM for many years, and I am on the Les Paul Foundation Advisory Council. When I heard that NAMM wanted to give a ‘nod to Hip Hop’ which is celebrating its 50th year, I decided to have Chuck D at my Black to the Future TEC Track to talk on the first 50 years of Hip Hop. I went about raising the funds for that with Athan Billias and Lawrence Levine, who are members of The Midi Association, to cover the expense of bringing Chuck D to the show and provide a suitable honorarium. We raised money under the banner of HIP HOP@50 from Roland, Shure, Pioneer DJ, Analog Devices, BASSBOSS, The Midi Association, and Spectrasonic Virtual Instruments. While this is going on, my PR agent Caroline suggested to Pete Johnston , producer of the NAMM TEC Experience, to connect with me, which he did. Johnston said, since you’re bringing Chuck D here, we’d like to give him an award; however, there are no current NAMM awards that speak to his contributions. I asked Pete to give me some time to come up with a proper award and its mission statement, which I did. The award is called the ‘Impact Music and Culture Award,’ to acknowledge the impact he has had on culture. I sent it to Johnston. NAMM made no changes to the awards name or mission statement, and then they sent an official notice to Chuck D to accept the award and he agreed. I presented it to him at the awards show Thursday.”

Adding to the mix was the “Hip Hop Innovator Award” to GrandMixer DXT for his contribution of innovating the turntable as a musical instrument, presented to him by DJ Jazzy Jeff; performances by Lord Finesse [Diggin’ In The Crates (D.I.T.C.)];