{"id":653143,"date":"2026-10-21T22:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T22:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/653143\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T22:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T22:06:11","slug":"historian-explores-aging-in-hip-hop-in-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/653143\/","title":{"rendered":"Historian Explores Aging in Hip-Hop in New Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Aug. 11, 1973, 18-year-old high school student Clive Campbell \u2013 better known by his musical moniker DJ Kool Herc \u2013 set up turntables, speakers and a mixer inside his family\u2019s apartment in New York City\u2019s Bronx borough. During the house party, thrown by his sister Cindy, Campbell played a fast blend of funk and soul breaks as a friend shouted rhymes to energize the crowd.<\/p>\n

Fifty-three years later, their performance \u2013 many music historians say \u2013 is regarded as a critical inception point of hip-hop<\/a>, a genre that in the decades since has evolved into a powerful and global cultural force that surpasses just music. Hip-hop today is a wellspring of art, expression, language, politics, community and a source of both personal and collective identity, according to Murray Forman<\/a>, hip-hop historian and Northeastern University professor emeritus.<\/p>\n

Now, as hip-hop enters its sixth decade, how does a culture that was once thought to be exclusively created by and for the youth grapple with the fact of its aging? And how do hip-hop pioneers and early listeners, many of whom are now in their later years, confront their own relevance and legacy?<\/p>\n

These questions sent Forman, 67, into an archival rabbit hole in which he excavated magazines, newspapers, websites, critical analyses and interviews from hip-hop\u2019s nascence to the present. It also led him to initiate new conversations with aging hip-hop legends, such as Grandmaster Caz, Ice-T, LL Cool J and Sha-Rock, in which Forman asked them to reflect on the ever-changing cultural context in which their art and identities have resided for most of their lives.<\/p>\n

Forman\u2019s findings coalesced into his latest scholarly book<\/a>: \u201cOld in the Game: Aging in and with Hip-Hop.\u201d Woven with first-hand interviews, historic anecdotes and Forman\u2019s academic dissections of hip-hop culture informed by his own lifelong connection to it, the book reveals in exhaustive detail the ways that age consciousness has been utilized throughout hip-hop history, both in positive and negative contexts.<\/p>\n

\"MurrayMurray Forman said he hopes scholarly work like \u201cOld in the Game\u201d prevents hip-hop archives from being lost to time. Photo by Matthew Modoono\/Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it is titled \u2018Old in the Game,\u2019 this book is not explicitly about being old,\u201d Forman writes. \u201cRather, it probes the beliefs, values, ideals, and lived experiences and expressions that accompany the processes of aging within hip-hop culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a nascent hip-hop head at 20 years old, it never dawned on Forman to think about the ages of the musicians, dancers or graffiti artists whose creativity he embraced, the historian said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI accepted the prevailing view that hip-hop was a youth thing, and as I moved through the scene, this was largely confirmed by the people who gathered around me,\u201d he said. \u201cRace, class, gender, location all rose as prominent factors for discussion and analysis, but age seemed to fall outside of hip-hop\u2019s critical self-assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the later 1970s and early 1980s, if age was addressed at all, it was often related to elderly \u201chaters\u201d who decried and dismissed the youths who lived with and loved the genre, Forman said. It was only later \u2013 when Forman was roughly the same age as, or older than, hip-hop\u2019s founders and iconic figures \u2013 that he recognized age\u2019s inseparable relevance to the culture.<\/p>\n

For instance, Curtis Brown, a member of hip-hop group The Cold Crush Brothers and one of the genre\u2019s foremost pioneers, touched on the idea of age and legacy as early as the 1980s, when he was in his twenties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo number can place me, time can\u2019t erase me. Those who wanna replace me, they won\u2019t face me,\u201d he rapped in \u201cI\u2019m Caz,\u201d released in 1987. \u201cThe rumors, the coolest, the true Grandmaster has died, been retired, or put out to pasture. I\u2019m a ten plus ten, ten makes thirty. And if I\u2019m washed up, you got to be dirty.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in an interview with Forman in 2015, as part of his research for the book, Brown \u2013 better known as Grandmaster Caz \u2013 admitted that despite the braggadocious, age-related lyrics from his past, his biological age is not what defines his identity within hip-hop.<\/p>\n

\u201cInside, none of us feels 60 or 55, you know. It\u2019s like it was just yesterday that we were playing out in the park,\u201d Brown told Forman. \u201cThe reality is that we are 60 and the things outside of hip-hop are really what identify our age more than hip-hop does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as Forman largely uses the voices of aging hip-hop icons to guide his analysis of the culture, he said he does not want to throw today\u2019s young generation of fans under the bus. Times may have changed since his own entrance to hip-hop, with the youth of today seeming to prefer muddier vocals, extreme energy in live show environments and different styles of beat production, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I hope they\u2019re having a blast with it, and I believe it\u2019s hip-hop,\u201d Forman said. \u201cIt\u2019s changed so much over these 50 years or so. That means it\u2019s alive, that it\u2019s vital.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Forman said he hopes scholarly work like \u201cOld in the Game\u201d and the research material he drew from prevents hip-hop archives<\/a> from being lost. Gathering oral histories from hip-hop pioneers as they and the culture continue to age means future generations will have resources to explore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the same way that these pioneers and veterans didn\u2019t quit, I hold myself to that standard as well,\u201d Forman said. \u201cIf I can do anything to contribute to hip-hop knowledge, that helps build or sustain the culture, then I feel like I\u2019m doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Aug. 11, 1973, 18-year-old high school student Clive Campbell \u2013 better known by his musical moniker DJ…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4157,787,1503,146,744,1154,85,46,409,49272],"class_list":["post-653143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-aging","tag-art","tag-culture","tag-entertainment","tag-hip-hop","tag-history","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music","tag-popular-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}