Great Debate: 7 Times ‘Hip-Hop’ Was Used in Print Before Historians Say

"It was perhaps that casual use in “Rapper’s Delight” that lead some to surmise that the meaning of the term hip-hop wasn’t clearly understood by party-goers in the Bronx or that it hadn’t been meaningfully defined until Manhattan took an interest. But this looks to have been a mistake on the part of regional and/or cultural outsiders."

To read my latest piece celebrating 50 Years of Hip-Hop, zip on over to my Medium page by clicking here. 

The Size Of A Tiny Crater On The Moon [Hotlinked™]

Phase 2 photographed by MikaV

On December 13, 2019, I would read in the news that my hero, Phase 2 (born Michael Lawrence Marrow), had died from the quiet battle he was having with Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He was 64. 

The news left me drained. So much so that I couldn’t even write about his death. What should I say? For more than a month, my blog was silent on his passing. But then it dawned on me–finally–that everything I’d want to say was already covered in my unpublished interview questions. So I publish them here now, in fond memory of Phase 2.

A super cool interview with NY graffiti & flyer legend Phase 2 in IGA Eye On Design Magazine #04

IGA Eye On Design Magazine #04

Back in October of 2018, graphic designer and teaching fellow at Maryland Institute College of Art, Jerome Harris, reached out to me after he'd happened across that little 2012 blog post I wrote on the 1980s hip-hop party flyers of legendary New York graffiti artist, designer and art historian Phase 2.

Jerome had had the honor of curating a show in September 2018 exploring the work of black graphic designers for the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Phase 2's hip-hop handbills were a big part of the show and IGA Eye On Design, a handsome print mag devoted to design, asked the curator to work up a long form piece on the influential (and somewhat illusive) Phase 2.

I was kindly asked if I could be interviewed to get my thoughts on the impact of Phase 2 on graphic design, graffiti art and hip-hop culture as a whole. And I, of course, couldn’t be more pleased to get any chance to talk at length about the dude who's always been one of my biggest creative inspirations.

 eyeondesign.aiga.org

Because he'd been largely unable to pin Phase himself down for a Q&A, Jerome had also reached out to half dozen Phase 2 enthusiasts in addition to me, including Charlie Ahearn (director of Wild Style) to flesh out the piece. I was given a fairly lengthy list of questions that allowed me to cover a lot of ground...but ninety percent of it wound up on the proverbial 'cutting room floor’ when Jerome was finally contacted by the illusive subject himself!

Nonetheless, I was flattered to see that Jerome was using my earliest personal recollection of Phase 2’s impact on hip-hop culture in New York and beyond to help frame the intro of his super cool interview with Phase 2 for the March edition of Eye On Design magazine. And I'm glad that I got the chance to be even a small part of this amazing retrospective.

Priced at $19 + shipping & handling, print editions of the gorgeous Eye on Design #04 (the "Worth" issue) are available at premier retail locations in cities across the US, Japan, the UK, Italy, Germany, China, Taiwan, and several more far flung locales. It'll also be available for digital download for only $9, at some point. But you can order a copy of the print edition today.

Oh, and if you're in Chicago and I like you like that...I may let you borrow mine. LOL

Paco Taylor, Esq.

[Archives] 'Underground Artists' in Newsweek, featuring Phase 2 (Oct, 1971)

[Click to enlarge]