![]() ![]() Nastymix Records gained national recognition with Sir Mix-A-Lot's 1992 #1 hit" Baby Got Back"(year end chart #4). Nastymix Records, the Northwest's first hip-hop label was founded with the local release of Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Square Dance Rap". Hosted by TJ Collins, Collins also featured local rappers and began airing mixes by GrandMixer GMS (who was a young teenager at the time). In 1986, the first radio show in Spokane to play rap and hip hop on commercial radio was “ The Power Switch” on POWER 104 FM (KXVO). Old skool rapper Kid Sensation was from Seattle also. With this space there was room for an eclectic group of identities to form, however none were successful in formulating a Seattle identity. As Seattle's music scene evolved, so did the Seattle breakdance and graffiti crews, including B-Boy groups like Silver Chain Gang, Circuit Breakers, and Breaking Mechanism, and graffiti writers such as Spaide, Streak, DadOne, and Spraycan. Due to the show's popularity, the station's producer allowed Nes to expand it to a Monday through Friday, 9pm to midnight show called NightBeat that featured prominent R&B songs as well as intermixed rap songs. These mixes were made up of songs by The World's Famous Supreme Team, Malcolm McLaren, Run-D.M.C. Fresh Tracks was a two hour show that played on Sunday nights on KKFX 1250 ("KFOX" and formerly KKDZ), and consisted of a mix of new songs and a mastermix created by Nasty Nes. In 80s, Seattle old skool rapper " Sir Mix-A-Lot"started his career. In the early 1980s, soldiers positioned at Tacoma's military bases provided the foundation for a growing hip-hop fan base in the Northwest. These events attracted the top rappers across the city which included the Emerald Street Boys among others in the early 80s. A student group from Rainier Beach High School called LTD (Leaders of Tomorrow's Democracy) with its DJ, John "Sir John III" Arnold, put on all-city rap competitions offering prize money. These bop-offs were a segue to some of the first rap competitions in the northwest. Bopping, also known as poppin', was seen as the precursor for many popular forms of urban style dancing today. ![]() Some of the more prominent dancers (or boppers) during this period were James "PJ" Daniels, John "Sir John III" Arnold, James "Captain Crunch" Croone, Pojo, Snake, among others in the south Seattle area. There were also informal bop offs that occurred at house parties and school yards where urban kids "called out" one another to compete. Many of the local underage clubs and high schools in South Seattle held formal contests called bop-offs where dancers would compete against one another. For many years the scene existed mainly as an underground genre, but recently Northwest hip-hop has seen more and more mainstream acceptance, with artists such as Macklemore gaining nationwide attention.ĭuring the late 1970s, high school kids from the Rainier Beach, Rainier Valley, and Central District areas started to perfect early hip hop forms of dancing in the northwest defined as bopping. Northwest hip hop music mixes elements from various genres of music to form a sound different from its southern neighbor, West Coast hip hop. Data collected facilitates the understanding of how Asian Americans engage hip-hop culture by documenting their participation as emcees, DJs, breakdancers, and graffiti artists.Northwest hip hop is hip hop or rap music that originates from the Pacific Northwest of North America, encompassing major cities such as Portland ( Oregon), Seattle ( Washington), and other towns. I have devised a methodology less reliant on archival materials (i.e., vinyl records and compact discs) that details the different types of data needed to establish a history of Asian Americans participating in Bay Area hip-hop culture. This is a historiography of Asian Americans participating in Bay Area hip-hop culture that has been masked or hidden. This dissertation investigates how Asian Americans of the Bay Area engage hip-hop culture as fans and artists. ![]()
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