Popmaster Fabel is working on a documentary which details how “street organizations” influenced the birth of hip-hop. This sounds like an interesting project. Last month, former gang members gathered in the South Bronx to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Black Spades. Davey D shares his experience and discusses the film. via ThugLifeArmy
Hip Hop dance pioneer Popmaster Fabel and a member of the East Harlem street organization the Savage Samuri, pointed out the irony of how Hip Hop provided a cultural imperative through traditional dance, music and artistic traditions helped move people away from the destructive aspects of gang life. Today through corporate co-option of the culture which manifests itself in the continuous highlighting of death instead of life, so much of commercial Hip Hop has now become a draw for youngsters to get involved with gangs.
Fabel who is putting the finishing touches of his ground breaking film ‘Apache Line From Gangs to Hip Hop’ took time to explain in great detail why it was important to understand the inner workings of the street organizations that gave birth to Hip Hop. Fabel doesn’t use the word gang because he sees it as a media driven term that was attached to young Black and Latino youths who saw the older leadership in their community came decimated in the 1970s through the FBI’s Cointel-pro program, the Vietnam War, and War on Youth which later morphed into the War on Drugs.
Fabel painstaking details in his film how in the backdrop of that cultural and social devastation young people at that time attempted to find their voice and identity and a sense of family within the early Bronx street organizations.
