Hawaiian's Hip Hop Culture

Matt Matches

Hawaiian’s Hip Hop Culture

It wasn’t until the 1980’s and 1990’s that the Hawaiian youth expressed their feelings and beliefs towards issues of race, class imperialism and culture through hip hop. But before all that, and before hip-hop truly arrived on the Hawaiian islands local hip-hop heads would transcended their emotions through “living the mainland narrative of hip-hop culture.” Once the hip-hop culture became popular on the mainland, well known artists such as Run DMC, the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J started coming out to the islands to perform. Hawaiian hip hoppers at that time were extremely influenced by the mainland rappers and emcees that played events on Big Island and in Honolulu, the locals acknowledged their liking and curiosity towards African American musical aesthetics, and began creating their own style. Hip-hop and rap music have been the latest in a long history of cross-culture music and dance in the islands.

From 1982-1985 the feature film Wild Style which utilized all elements of hip hop, blew up on the islands, it showcased America’s public spaces including rural areas, subways, malls and parks as a realm to express music, dance and graffiti art. Wild Style along with other films such as Flashdance and Beat Street which came out in the 80’s opened the eyes of Hawaiian hip-hop heads and was a powerful contributing factor to the emergence of hip-hop in Hawaii. After the films’ releases Hawaiian youth started to imitate the culture they saw in the movies. Kapiolani Park was used as a place for b-boys to dance and abandoned military ruins became a canvas for emerging graffiti artists. The culture began to grow and individuals began to show.

By the 1990’s Kutmaster Spaz a deejay from Oahu was on a mission to strengthen hip-hop culture in Hawaii. Xtreme Radio, where Kutmaster worked, sponsored underground artists to come out to hawaii and perform at small clubs and venues. The youth was enjoying the culture and in 1998 a non-alcoholic hip-hop club opened near the University of Hawaii, it was called The Source. Kutmaster Spaz would DJ at the club but it didn’t last long. Unfortunately crime and violence stereotypically linked itself to hip-hop and the police were on a mission to stop it. Before 2000 a city councilman closed down the club because of his image that preceded with hip-hop culture, which apparently wasn’t a positive one.

The hip-hop scene in Hawaii differs from the mainland because of the island’s remote location, but the emphasis on the culture and lack of mainstream music infrastructure keeps the scene local and expressive in original ways.