Essence Fest 2023: An Ode To Hip-Hop

Some of the Hip-Hop Pioneers took to the stage to celebrate 50 years of hip-hop

Transcript

00:00 Before fire, before fresh was the word

00:03 Before Houdini and friends and Roxanne's revenge

00:07 Before the freaks came out at night

00:09 Before say ho

00:11 Before the crash crew was rockin' on the radio

00:18 Before Whitney, Mariah, Brandy and Janet

00:22 Before Bam and the Soul Sonic Force rocked the planet

00:26 Before these are the breaks

00:28 Before hot times

00:29 Before the Sugar Hill Gang and before Super Rhymes

00:33 Before megadomics

00:35 Before rappers got shot in their stomachs

00:38 Before you found hip-hop in comics

00:41 Before G's

00:42 Before weed was cheese

00:44 Before going raw dog gave you a deadly disease

00:48 Before haters

00:50 Before thugs that perpetrated us

00:52 Before the alphas

00:54 Before the betas

00:56 Before people's cell phones, retro cards

00:59 FedEx, food stamps and MetroCards

01:02 Before cops was five-oh

01:04 Or gets was answers

01:06 Before all the wee boys turned into great dancers

01:10 Before legs was crazy

01:12 Out turned is crazy

01:14 When L said his heart was