Jill Murray

I love, love, love, love, love, love, love hip hop because some of the most fundamental aspects of emceeing, deejaying, breaking and graff have historically been achieved totally by accident, using the most inauspicious tools imaginable.

I’m not even talking about ghettoes and the racism and brutal political conditions and gangs and police violence, and urban decay, though hip hop history is brimming over with amazing stories about triumphing over all of that stuff.

No. That ish is serious and inspiring and what have you, but I’m talking about way-random accomplishments like:

• Don Campbellock was trying to do the funky chicken when he accidentally invented locking. Just think about that for a minute. Close your eyes. Now imagine all the people you know who’ve failed at the funky chicken. (Some– people attempting to throw dignified wedding receptions, for example– might even suggest it’s a dance best left unattempted.) Did your uncle Bob or goofy frat buddy Dave ever invent one of the 20th century’s most important street dances while failing at the funky chicken? That’s what I thought. Next?
• DJ Grand Wizard Theodore invented scratching while trying to hold the record still on his turntable while his mom was yelling at him. Yeah. Scratching. That swisha swisha sound that DJs compete to be good at? The primary tool DJs and producers use for adding vocal samples and freestyle rhythmic elements to tracks? That technique that Kid Koala’s entire career is based around? Total accident.
• Super Kool 223 created graf history by becoming the first man ever to put an oven cleaner cap on a can of spray paint to widen the spray radius. This one’s a lot more ‘mother, the necessity of invention,’ than a pure accident. But it’s so simple, and I think we can all agree that the ability to apply a lot of paint to a large surface as quickly as possible was fundamental to getting graf noticed, which makes it fundamental to spreading its popularity as the urban folk art form it is today– not to mention its widespread adoption into everything from music video decor to fashion to corporate product and logo design, to something nice to do with Bell utility boxes around Toronto.

In a way, none of it is accidental at all. Campbellock had to have really been giving that chicken his all to just happen upon a new dance vocabulary. Note that Theodore did not turn his stereo off when his mom started yelling at him. And you have to be pretty committed to throwing paint up on walls to either conduct research into the nossels of competing spray devices, or to simply have paint on the brain when you observe oven cleaning by happenstance.

These examples beautifully illustrate the adage ‘the harder you work, the luckier you get.’ And in each case, each of these individuals had to be devoting his life to something that someone, maybe even most people, regarded as a waste of time.

Dang. This is turning into an inspirational lecture. That wasn’t my intention at all. I was just trying to be goofy, but that’s the power of hip hop for you.

I don’t have a specific item for emceeing. Anyone else out there know of one, or have other similar favourite moments in hip hop you feel like sharing with me? Drop it in the comments, please.

And in case you’re curious, one of my favourite places to read about stories like these online is Mr. Wiggles web site where he has chronicled many incredible first-hand accounts of incredible hip hop escapades.