PRIME,
a local Hip-hop artist who found his passion in writing, says hip hop’s four
elements “came as a package deal for us here on the island.” (Prime
interview) Hip hop culture came
onto the scene in the late 70’s and early 80’s and started from there. It came at a time when tourism was
booming and the local people’s voices were being drowned out by investors from
over seas. It is similar to the
struggle that was happening in the Bronx where hip hop was born. The inequality gap was rising and
oppression forced people into a corner. Because of tourism, foreign
investments, and rising inequality, Hawaiʻi hip hop culture came at the perfect time for youth to
voice their frustrations and struggles.
Hawaiʻi has always been a paradise. It has been assimilated into the ignorant minds of the world
as a place where hula girls sway with the breeze in the palm trees and mai tais
rest in hand as a surfer gracefully glides across the crystal clear water. That was back before the christening of
the jet plane. Before planes could
reach the islands from the shores of California in six hours, people would
travel to Hawaiʻi by boat.
Traveling by boat is a major time investment and time is not what a
blue-collar man has. A trip to Hawaiʻi meant a
month or two-month long vacation.
It was an exotic place that only the rich could afford to go to. That was until the jet plane came
along. Within a quarter of a day,
people could arrive in Hawaiʻi and lap up its beauty.
Tourism
boomed and Hawaiʻi made a complete transition from a primary economy
(agriculture/natural resources) to a tertiary economy (services). Money came into the islands fast. The only problem was, the money was
going to the wrong places. The
locals found that their lifestyle of living off of the land and caring for it
couldn’t make them a living as land prices skyrocketed. Many people were forced to enter the
tourism industry and bastardize the island culture just to make a living. The inequality gap began to grow and
the local people found a feeling of helplessness in their home.
However,
hope was not lost. The Hawaiian Sovereignty
movement of the 1960’s and 70’s gave rise to a great sense of pride and it was
fairly successful. The only
problem was that the social institutions that were present were already
cemented in. Programs like the
Hawaiian Homes Commission was poorly designed and received negligible funding
so to compensate for this, the HHC rented out lands to non-Hawaiians just so
that they could survive. The people found that voicing their opinions to the
government had no effect.
Politricks won again. Money
was what moved Hawaiʻi now. The people with no money could do nothing except
watch, as the islands became a tourist heaven.
A
great example of this is the foreign investors that came and bought up land and
assets. Japan invested in hotels
and land development that crowded out the poor people from the housing
market. Land prices were
increasing at dramatic rates and people were looking for an escape. How could they deal with this increasing
inequality?
Hip
hop came to the islands during this time of inequality. The youth found power in this active
culture and felt like they finally had a creative outlet to express
themselves. They heard Grandmaster
Flash’s lyrics, “its like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from
goin’ under,” and understood these conscious lyrics. They understood it because they were coming from the same
place – the place of oppression.
They didn’t want to support the prostitution of their home culture in
the tourism industry and nobody would listen to their civil pleas for justice
and equality. All that was left
was hip hop, which came in the form of a savior for youth and locals across the
islands. They used it as a way to
voice the struggles they were going through and it was empowering. Hawaiʻi hip hop was
created in a similar context to that of New York, but it had its own style full
of compassion and the spirit of aloha.
A. Tao
A. Tao
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