Hawaii being an annexed island of
the United States and almost five thousand miles away from the Bronx
(Birthplace of Hip-Hop) would lead you to think that the Hip-Hop culture would not
spread to a place of this distance and isolation. However Hawaii was not immune
to the globalization of Hip-Hop and its emergence began in the early 80’s.
Based on our lecture from Buzz-1 (Jayson Tavares) Hip-Hop for Hawaii began
with Hollywood feature films such as Wild Style, Breakin’ 1&2 & Beat
Street. In Osumare’s book “Props to the local boys” it is also stated that the
influence of Hip-Hop began with the same exact films, confirming Buzz-1’s
statement. These films were viral in those days and the emergence of the
“B-Boy” in Hawaii became evident thanks to these films. Buzz-1 stated that while growing up in the Big Island and as he moved to Oahu, he and his friends were
so excited to watch these movies over and over again, and the same went for
hip-hop music that played on the radio at the time. They would record tapes of artists
like “Run DMC” and they would listen to the tapes constantly while practicing
the moves the learned from watching the Breakdancing films. The Hip-Hop
phenomena became so popular within the islands that in 1984 “ a television pilot called ‘breakin Hawaii’
premiered 8 episodes of television breakdance contests, with youth of both
sexes from all over Oahu competing for the cameras.” (Props To The Local Boys
P.115)
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| Movie from the 80's that influenced Hip-Hop in Hawaii |
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| 1983 Film Portraying Different elements the Hip-Hop |
The
influence of Hip-Hop and Hawaii is similar to that of April Henderson’s
“Dancing between the islands” paper and the story of Kosmo and his experience
with Hip-Hop and taking what he saw in California and teaching people in New
Zealand. The influence came from a sparked interest in the art form of popping/locking, purely
anecdotal which turned into imitation and from there local style was
incorporated into Juxtaposing of Hip-Hop and the island style dancing. For Hawaii is was
watching the films such as Beat Street, for Kosmo is was watching the dancers
of Carson California. The same goes for the Graffiti artist Aea4m (Jordan
Pezel) their influence came from the visual aspect of Hip-Hop, and once they
were able to grasp the concept, they added their own island twist to the mix.
Buzz-1 mentioned constantly during his interview of how they (islanders)
recognized how Hip-Hop was abroad, and they tried their best to not mimic what
others were doing, but rather be original and add the “island”, “Local”, or
“Hawaiian” theme to the emerging culture. The same was true for Aea4m and
coming up with different artforms for his tagging pieces. As he stated, He and other local artists
recognized the different forms of tagging (West Coast vs East Coast) such as
mechanical letters or color schemes and they set out to produce something
different from what was already out there and create their own “island” twist
to their products.
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| B-Boy Performing at "Breakin' Hawaii" |
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| Screen Capture of "Breakin' Hawaii" being featured on KGMB9 |
“Back in
the day, people in Hawaii felt they had to act a certain way to be hip-hop…By
wearing the Africa Red, Green, and yellow medallions not even knowin’ what it
stood for. But now they wear kukui nuts and show pride in their
heritage”-Kutmaster Spaz. Just as Buzz-1 stated and which is backed up in the
article “props to the local boys” Hip Hop in Hawaii began from these films, and
that influence grew into what the islanders perceived as “hip-hop” (wearing
African Medallions) to the artform growing into a more “local” flavor of
Hip-Hop whether it be by the B-Boys, Taggers, MC’s & DJ’s, & Rappers. The journey for hawaii's initial emergence started with the influence of the Hip-Hop activities in the Bronx that made it to the big screen, from there it spread and introduced to Hawaii what is now Hip-Hop, and since its inception in the islands in the early 80's the locals added a little twist to the elements to make it original to themselves.
Rafe B.
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