One point breached in Abe’s Introduction and one I found myself thinking about a lot while reading, is that we have been led to believe via mainstream media that 1) there isn’t a lot of Hip Hop happening in Seattle and 2) that Hip Hop is dead. During the initial boom of Macklemore’s popularity in 2012 with Same Love, Wing$, and Thrift Shop, I was led to believe that his Hip Hop education was the product of some tiny collective of artists in Seattle. And as for other iconic artists, like Sir Mix-A-Lot (whose forward in Emerald Street is heartfelt and wonderful), I was told that their heydays were in the late ‘80s and ‘90s, and that the culture had since been snuffed out almost completely.
But based on Abe’s diligent research, it is beyond evident that this is not true. Hip Hop culture is vibrant and alive in Seattle and has been for years, and the Hip Hop scene here is unlike anywhere else. “What is Seattle flavor?” Sir Mix-A-Lot writes, “The uniqueness of being yourself.”
Throughout Emerald Street, Abe commits to the interconnectedness of Hip Hop to other aspects of culture. Beginning with Black History, moving into the introduction of Jazz, R&B, and Rock & Roll, to where Hip Hop and rap first entered Seattle’s cultural zeitgeist on a cozy little AM radio station called KYAC. With KYAC’s bold playing of Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang in 1979 (largely finding radio time only on the East Coast), Seattle’s Hip Hop world exploded. From there, Seattle welcomed the Emerald Street Boys who opened doors for more Hip Hop artists and the fostering of Hip Hop culture.
As someone not familiar with Hip Hop culture, I was blown away by the intersection of Hip Hop and so many other facets of city life. Wrapped up in the unfamiliar (to me) Hip Hop scene were so many familiar parts of Seattle culture, things I had brushed up against but never realized were interconnected. Graffiti, dance (breaking), sports, and social justice were all eveloped in the growth of Seattle Hip Hop, long before beloved Seattle artists first started getting their national and international acclaim.
Nonfiction works like this are, sadly, usually not very approachable for the average reader. History books and informative essay collections tend to be reserved for classrooms or people in academic spheres. Among my writing community, very few of us find ourselves drifting towards the nonfiction section of our local bookstores. Even I find myself dejectedly putting down nonfiction from time to time, even if creative nonfiction was my main love in my creative writing program. I find that nonfiction writers (specifically those of us writing research and informative collections) tend to move ahead quickly, leaving our readers behind in technical jargon or in references that aren’t widely known to people outside of our scholarly scope.
