Editor's Note: On the Ground Kalamazoo Writer Maya James recently attended a seminar on the politics of Hip Hop at the Northside Association for Community Development. She shares her takeaways. 

KALAMAZOO, MI — It’s a chilly Monday night. I pull into the Northside Association for Community Development, a large brown concrete building adorned with smiling faces of predominantly Black and Brown organizers and public figures from Kalamazoo's Northside. Upon entering the building, I'm greeted by a beautiful mosaic depicting young folks working together in a garden, accompanied by the caption: “We Love The North Side.” 

This particular October afternoon, as people filter in through the doors, the aroma of Panera Bread sandwiches and broccoli cheddar soup fills the air. As the seminar commences, local rap artist Ed Genesis begins to speak from the heart about his struggles, accomplishments, fears, and aspirations for the city of Kalamazoo during his seminar titled “Subject to Review: A Look at Social Justice Through a Hip-Hop Lens,” in collaboration with the Northside Association, ISAAC, and Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

Genesis of a Northside musician and activist

Anyone involved in community organizing in Kalamazoo faces scrutiny, rumors, and harsh criticism of their efforts. It comes with the territory. Ed Genesis is no exception. However, he continues to show up with an open heart and mind, sharing his perspectives as a formerly incarcerated Black man from Gary, Indiana. He adopted the name “Genesis” after the Genesis Convention Center in his hometown and even gave the name to his daughter.

Ed Genesis raps with his toothpick, a signature Diamond Toothpicks acknowledged by sending him a case.As a city that once hosted concerts, sports events, and community gatherings, including the Miss U.S.A. pageants in 2010 and 2013, Gary has been described as “gutted” due to a combination of economic decline in the region and a recent $2.5 million payment default by Akyumen, a California-based tech firm, which led the Gary Redevelopment Commission to file a lawsuit. 

The Genesis Convention Center was once a beacon of hope for the community but is now an abandoned building. By adopting the name Genesis, Ed Genesis says he honors the positive legacy of the center and the city of Gary, his hometown, he says.


Hip-Hop legacy

This brings us to “Subject to Review.” Genesis uses his lecture platform to address critical issues such as housing discrimination, employment discrimination, and police violence, saying, “I believe that there was a real deal stacked against Black men in America.”

Genesis has been organizing around his music for years. “I began organizing long before I knew what organizing was,” he says. He recalls standing outside a store in North Park, distributing pizza and messages of prosperity. “I did this for about four years,” he says, adding he extended his efforts from North Park to Gary, Indiana. As he grew older, he involved his whole family in his activism. “My wife, Patrice Griffin, was the former vice mayor. When I say I brought my whole family into it, I brought my whole family into it.” 

Collage: Maya JamesEd Genesis begins the lecture with the “broken windows” concept. Coined in 1982 by conservative thought leaders James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, four years before former President Ronald Reagan proclaimed his “war on drugs” in a live television speech, the concept suggests that visible signs of crime in urban areas lead to an increase in criminal behavior. It perpetuates the belief that imposing harsher penalties for minor offenses — such as vandalism, loitering, public drinking, and fare evasion — will deter more serious crimes.

“Two white scientists in New York came up with a theory,” Genesis explains. “The theory was that if you park a vandalized car — a car with a broken window — in a poverty-stricken community, within an hour, it would be vandalized. 

"With this, they said if you make those acts criminal, you will deter murder, rape, and violence. So New York adopted this and said 'If we lock people up for jumping the turnstile,' which is the subway that you go through, graffiti, and also loitering — "we'll get to that in a little while — 'then we will deter bigger crimes.’”

This Ed Genesis' disc is a tribute to a deceased friend, Andre Dixon, whose birthday was February 13th.Genesis’s description of this idea parallels the mindset exemplified by the harsh punishment of NYPD in the shooting of 37-year-old Derell Mickles for jumping a turnstile in the New York subway this past September. Mickles was later arraigned from a hospital bed. Genesis states that he wants to discard the “Broken Windows Theory” and replace it with “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash: “Don’t push me, cause, I am close, to the edge!”

Genesis describes early Hip-Hop as a product of the all-American relationship between jazz and blues, which created a lovechild known as Hip-Hop. He paints a nostalgic picture of this early connection while referencing Chicago magazine and early DJs who led youth freedom marches during the Jim Crow era, as well as the influence of “big mamas” throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s who held their communities together and created new art forms in their everyday lives. 
He highlights women like Sylvia Robinson, who produced the very first rap hit, “Rapper’s Delight,” with her Sugar Hill Gang. 

Writer's Note: My only critique of this informative and empowering lecture is the absence of Roxanne Shante. An early mentor to Nas and collaborator with Marley Marl, she was dubbed the “Queen of Rap” by the New York Times and went on to inspire an entire generation of rappers. Her contributions went unmentioned once again. Nevertheless, Genesis pays due homage to other women who cultivated the hip-hop we all know and love today, such as Robinson and Cindy Campbell, DJ Kool Herc's little sister, who organized his first show when she was just thirteen years old.

Birth of Hip-Hop

Genesis highlights a pivotal moment in Hip-Hop history when DJ Kool Herc's sister, Cindy Campbell, organized a party to raise money for school clothes. She asked her older brother, who responded affirmatively, leading to the creation of a homemade flier for the event, titled “A DJ Kool Herc Party Back to School Jam.” This flier, made with lined paper, markers, and ink, reflects the grassroots beginnings of hip-hop. “This is considered the birth of hip hop,” says Genesis. 

Genesis then breaks down the importance of the roles established in the late '80s and early '90s Hip-Hop culture, which are now quintessential staples of the art form. 

Ed Genesis, second from left, at Subject to Review at Northside Association for Community Development.“We had four main elements of Hip-Hop: DJing, which is the foundation; then we had the MC, the first person to grab the mic and say, ‘yes, yes, y'all!’” He highlights the role of “B-Boys” who influenced the deep connection to fashion, industry, and culture that hip-hop solidified as its foundation today, 

“The B-Boys were breakdancing, and after they finished, they would hit their B-Boy stance. It might look a little bit like that.” These elements collectively shaped the essence of Hip-Hop, making it a dynamic and multifaceted cultural movement. 

That culture, Genesis warns, comes with a cost: “We got the tracksuit on. They’re looking at us running, fly girls walking by. You know what I'm saying? This drew attraction because the broken one was here. So now the B-Boys become bad boys. Now you're a lawyer. Now you're a gang.”

Hip-Hop inspires hope

Hope, however, has always been the guiding force of Hip-Hop and the cultures from which it originates, says Genesis.  “The same way our people who were in bondage realized their situation, we also had artists like Public Enemy, Chuck D, and KRS-One saying something ain't right. Pay attention to what's going on; look around you. And it would make me pay attention…”

From “Boyz N the Hood” to his own accomplishments in the early 2000s, Genesis embraces his underdog status and stands proud in his culture and craft. “I have songs placed on over 17 different television shows, including Forensic Files and The George Lopez Show. The whole set is paid, so I get paid for the rest of my life every time they play these.”

Ed Genesis appears at many local event and is seen here at the 2017 Kalamazoo Poetry Festival.Ed Genesis’ “Subject to Review” inspires solely because he remembers where he comes from and knows when the odds are against him. “Police brutality is real,” says Genesis, who has been incarcerated for three felonies in his lifetime, and so is murder. “A 2015 study concluded that murder was the cause of 51.5% of U.S. hip-hop artists' deaths that ranged from 20 to 31 years old—over half,” according to Genesis and The Washington Post. Through all the struggles, Genesis stays humbled and happy to be alive. 

“I just feel happy to be a part of hip-hop, but also proud to remember what the roots of hip-hop are. So it’s always props to gospel music and what it represents. It’s always props to the blues and jazz and what our ancestors were saying then, and always props to the hip-hop pioneers and what they said, giving me the opportunity to say, ‘You too can say something.’ So thank y’all.”

At the end of the seminar, after grabbing my complimentary notebook and “Certificate of Participation,” I congratulate Genesis on a great class and ask what he needs me to write about this experience. With enthusiasm, he says that he wants me to write an article about his class, in his words, as a “response.” 

When I ask what he'd like me to include in this piece, he says to emphasize how important it was that the Northside Association for Community Development empowered him to provide a free, informative, and impactful seminar for the community. With those requests, the seminar became for this writer, a 'subject to review.' 

Overall, during a chilly fall evening, I was reminded of all the losses and hardships we experience as a community, and the artists, cultural workers, and organizers who provide vulnerability and open hearts to bring people together — if only for a moment.