I N T R O D U C T I O N

mobilize disaĆłected young people. Despite the dispute about the

legacy of the Zulu Nation, Bambaataa’s ultimate message that hip

hop could and should play a more activist role in society would not be lost.

According to DJ Spooky, a body-grooving experimental DJ and

mind-grooving intellectual, Bambaataa was future-oriented in terms of his approach to hip-hop music and politics. Calling Bambaataa

�śactionary rather than reactionary,” Spooky claims, �śhe gave the no-tion of channeling the anger and bitterness of being outside the

American mainstream into a constructive thing.” Bambaataa under-

stood that the misery associated with poverty bred contempt that

was often channeled inward. Though he did not have the formal

training of a social worker or youth psychologist, Bambaataa knew that the troubles facing ghetto youths required dramatic interven-tion. He argued that the solution was to empower people to con-

front head-on the problems facing their community. When nearly

no one else did, Bambaataa believed hip hop could lead the way to a brighter day.

. . .

While Bambaataa and others contemplated hip hop’s political

future, the movement was about to succumb to a more immediate

reality, commercialism. The concerns about credibility and authen-ticity�"notwithstanding the growing sensation known as �śRapper’s

Delight”�"confirmed that hip hop’s commercial potential was real.

Still, the idea that hip hop could have an enduring commercial life seemed farfetched. Back in the day, hip hop’s performing elite con-sisted of DJs, MCs, break dancers, and aerosol artists. This emergent cadre of artists�"and that is what they were�"had never rejected the idea of making money, they just seldom stopped to think that the art they were creating could command money-paying patrons of any

significance beyond their immediate environment.

One such artist was Joseph Saddler. Born in Barbados, Joseph

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