Andrew Knox

HUM 125 – Reflection Paper #6

December 8th, 2010

Reflection Paper #6: The History of Seattle Hip-Hop

Seattle has always been the de facto musical capital of the Northwestern United States region.

The Puget Sound area has produced a plethora of musicians that went on to accrue national acclaim,

including: Jimi Hendrix, Quincy Jones, Heart, Kenny G, The Ventures and other garage rock bands in

the 1960's, not to mention Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters, Death Cab

for Cutie and countless other grunge and alternative rock bands since the late 80's/early 90's.1 Even

Ray Charles began his recording career here. So, while our town has been lauded for its achievements

and success in the field of rock music, some would say that Seattle's hip-hop music scene has been

notoriously underrated. The number of Seattle-based hip-hop artists who have gained national

recognition can be counted on one middle finger.

Sir Mix-A-Lot, one of the founding fathers of the local hip-hop scene, may be remembered

fondly by local hip-hop heads for his earlier work (such as throwing parties in the gym of the Central

District Boys and Girls Club, his debut album Swass and its lead single, “Posse on Broadway”), but

nationally, he's a joke. A cultural relic of the early 90's. The “I-Like-Big-Butts” Guy. A one-hit

wonder dogged by the overwhelming success of, and subsequent backlash over, his biggest hit, 1992's

“Baby Got Back.”2 Since the song was widely regarded as novelty pop, neither Sir Mix-A-Lot nor the

wider Seattle hip-hop scene were taken seriously as professional musicians afterward.

However, while the controversy surrounding “Baby Got Back” may have dented the Seattle hip-

hop scene's reputation, Sir Mix-A-Lot is not solely responsible for the suppression of Seattle-based hip-

hop artists within the American mainstream. Other factors such as the Teen Dance Ordinance, the lack

of elders within the local hip-hop community, the difficulty in adapting New York-style hip-hop to the

region and geographic bias and isolation have not been conducive to an anticipated explosion in Seattle

hip-hop's popularity across America.

1 City of Seattle.
2 Abe.

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The Teen Dance Ordinance (TDO) was enacted by the Seattle City Council in 1985 after

allegations of prostitution and drug use at an all-ages venue called the Monastery. While the stated

purpose of the ordinance was to protect local youth from such illicit behaviors, its primary effect was to

ban all-ages dances and concerts across the city. Under the law, venues were allowed to admit

underage attendees under very strict conditions: “buying $1 million in liability insurance; closing the

show to people 21 and over; hiring an off-duty police officer and at least two security officers trained in

law enforcement; and charging a readmission fee.”3 Since club owners' and concert promoters' choices

were limited to the dichotomy of either only youths or only adults, they sided with their primary

income source: alcoholic drinks. Economic necessity forced local venues to consent to the City's de

facto ban: “dance promoters say Seattle's teen dance scene started to die the day the law was enacted.

Without the money adults bring in from buying drinks, promoters have not been able to afford holding

teen-only events.”4 Since the majority of Seattle's hip-hop fans back then averaged within the 15-20

year old range and discrimination cornered hip-hop acts into only playing gigs at small venues, rap

concerts featuring local talent were few and far between.

Local hip-hop was slowly suffocating under the ordinance until a grunge rocker, Nirvana bassist

Krist Novoselic, stepped up against the TDO and lobbied the City Council for reform through his role

as spokesman for JAMPAC (Joint Artists and Music Promotions Action Committee). Despite a veto by

Mayor Paul Schell and numerous lawsuits, Novoselic and JAMPAC eventually triumphed, replacing

the TDO with the far less restrictive All Ages Dance Ordinance (AADO) between 2000 and 2002.5 The

repealment of the TDO had an extremely positive effect on the Seattle hip-hop scene, with one recent

hip-hop textbook stating that “[the AADO] is helping to ensure that smaller venues can host hip-hop

shows. Thus, the Northwest's almost dead hip-hop scene has undergone a resurgence, allowing newer,

3 Feit.
4 Murakami.
5 Feit.

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underground artists to redefine the Seattle hip-hop scene.”6

Another reason Seattle has in the past failed to rise as a major hip-hop player despite an

abundance of creative talent is that, until recently, the local scene had very few experienced artists with

industry connections who could serve as mentors to younger artists. Local producer Jake One said in

an interview with the Seattle Times that “[back in 1997] the guys behind the scenes were the same age

as the artists. They had no experience. No real connections. There weren't any elders to help us.” But,

since the repeal of the TDO, the Seattle scene has aged and organized, artists have learned the language

of business: “Over the years, Seattle's rap scene has grown from a disorganized, grass-roots endeavor to

a navigable marketplace. Now, artists are behaving like businesses, outsourcing labor to managerial

teams, and club and concert promoters are savvier too, building formidable street teams.”7

The third major factor in Seattle's suppression has been the difficulty in adapting standards of

New York City's brand of hip-hop to the realities of Seattle's culture and climate. New York and Seattle

have completely different layouts, in terms of population density. New Yorkers, and other residents of

super-large cities, are stacked vertically in high-rise apartments and condominiums. But in Seattle, our

domiciles are spread out horizontally, and the majority of residences are single-family houses. While

this trend is certainly not unique to Seattle (it can be seen in cities all along the west coast), it, coupled

with our dreary weather, does not facilitate the kind of neighborly community collaboration that made

hip-hop possible in the first place. It even brings about a mass social disorder known as “the Seattle

Freeze,” a widespread phenomenon causing visitors and transplants to view native Seattleites as “polite

but distant. Have a nice day. Somewhere else.”8

The Freeze seems to have carried over to the sound of many local rappers and DJs, “[Seattle's]

hip-hop has an underground ethos and gives off a passive-aggressive air that is positively Seattle...

[Blue Scholars DJ Sabzi says:] 'the sound of Seattle is... softer, musically, but the content isn't

6 Hess 308.
7 Matson.
8 Sommerfeld.

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necessarily soft.'”9 These concepts were best distilled in a passage from Mickey Hess' 2010 book, Hip

Hop in America: A Regional Guide:

When compared to cities like New York where apartment and condominium living is the norm,

the residents of the Northwest seem detached and isolated. Additionally, the concept of urban

living is different in the Pacific Northwest. In the boroughs of New York, one can find

everything that he or she might need within walking distance. Grocery stores, corner markets,

pizzerias, and barber shops line the streets of the city, while in cities like Seattle and Portland

such necessary services are clumped together in areas usually reached by automobile. Rather

than walking through neighborhoods, interacting with friends and neighbors, residents of the

Northwest are more likely to drive alone in the car to a local supermarket where they are less

likely to have a personal relationship with the shopkeepers and other merchants. Additionally,

through many months of the year, the weather in the Northwest is rainy or cold, discouraging

walking to places or lingering outside to talk to neighbors. The idea of "urban" has different

meanings in cities like Seattle and Portland. Thus, the "block party" roots of hip-hop could not

transfer well to the Northwest region.10

But all three of these factors put together haven't been as damaging to Seattle's hip-hop scene as

the last one... geographic bias and isolation. Some have proposed that there is no way to become

widely successful and continue living in the Seattle area. The extreme focus on America's cultural

capitals, New York and Los Angeles, has led to an uneven distribution of recording and marketing

resources available to up-and-coming musicians. For any other city's hip-hop scene to enter the

national stage, the city's scene had to unify behind an art movement or a certain style or genre. Cities

like Atlanta, Miami, Houston and Oakland made names for themselves by having unionized scenes that

produced music that more or less sounds all alike.

Seattle's scene, on the other hand, does not have a unified message, sound, genre, much less a

9 Matson.
10 Hess 288.

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single universal characteristic. It could be characterized by its diversity in sounds but that is a weak

method of categorization. Besides, many of Seattle's biggest stars stayed in town until the very

moment they could afford to move away. Jimi Hendrix didn't become famous around the world til he

moved to London. Butterfly of Digable Planets went off to New York to earn money. Quincy Jones,

Nirvana, Sir Mix-A-Lot and many others felt they could only continue their commercial careers by

relocating to Southern California.11 To this effect, prominent Seattle MC Khalil “Khingz” Equiano

recently promoted relocation for hip-hop artists in an interview with the Seattle Weekly: “I feel like we

got way too much talent in Seattle for everyone to just be here... I think [Seattle rappers] could

accomplish more by getting out, living elsewhere, and whatever opportunities you get you share it with

your people back home. But for everyone to just be living here, and constantly doing shows together, I

don't fully agree with that.”12

While some may see the large number of hip-hop artists making a living from their craft in

Seattle as a form of overpopulation, I see it as confirmation of the possible emergence of Seattle as

another major regional hip-hop scene like the Dirty South. Among Seattle's hip-hop artists

professionally avoiding a day job are Blue Scholars, Greyskull, Saturday Nights, Macklemore, Dyme

Def, Gabriel Teodros, Unexpected Arrival, Common Market, Oldominion, Parker Brothaz, Khingz,

Abyssinian Creole, Boom Bap Project and countless other emerging artists. “Super-producers” like

Vitamin D, Jake One and Bean One have made their mark on the national scene by selling

instrumentals to artists like “Redman, Busta Rhymes, De La Soul and 50 Cent's G-Unit collective.”

Despite numerous setbacks and handicaps, Seattle hip-hop is on the rise, “you could say there's no

longer a second-class feel to the Seattle scene... 'Now, the roads have been paved and the business side

is catching'... Backpack or superstar... Seattle hip-hop is blossoming... [and now] 'We're making people

come to us.'”13

11 Abe.
12 Cunningham.
13 Matson.

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Works Cited:

◦ Abe, Daudi. "Going Way Back: A Brief History of 206 Hip-Hop." The Stranger, 9 Aug 2006.
Web. 8 Dec 2010. <http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=50163>.
◦ City of Seattle. "Seattle Music Timeline." City of Seattle, 17 Feb 2007. Web. 8 Dec 2010.
<http://www.seattle.gov/music/map/Timeline.htm>.
◦ Cunningham, Jonathan. "Khingz: Time to Share the Wealth." Seattle Weekly, 17 Jun 2009. Web.
<http://www.seattleweekly.com/2009-06-17/music/khingz-time-to-share-the-wealth/>.
◦ Feit, Josh. "I Was a Teenage Lawsuit." The Stranger, 31 Jan 2002. Web. 8 Dec 2010.
<http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/i-was-a-teenage-lawsuit/Content?oid=9880>.
◦ Hess, Mickey. Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide. Volume 1. Santa Barbara, CA:
Greenwood Press, 2010. 288-308. eBook. <http://books.google.com/books?
id=XkCncJ7j744C&pg=PA288&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false>.
◦ Matson, Andrew. "Seattle's hip-hop scene comes into its own." Seattle Times, 27 Apr 2007.
Web. 8 Dec 2010. <http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?
date=20070427&slug=hiphop27>.
◦ Murakami, Kery. "Teen dance law repealed by the City Council." Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 22
Aug 2000. Web. 8 Dec 2010. <http://www.seattlepi.com/local/teen22.shtml>.
◦ Sommerfeld, Julia. "Beyond the smiles, the Seattle Freeze is on." Seattle Times, 13 Feb 2005.
Web. 8 Dec 2010. <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2005/0213/cover.html>.