The Hip Hop Crew at School

I am sure you must remember them or maybe you were even in the ‘hip hop crew’ at school. I remember my school’s crew. There were about twelve of them although they rarely turned up consistently. I think they took it in turns to attend school. They would always stand in a particular corner of the canteen and music would be siphoned from their massive headphones (these looked so uncomfortable and I could imagine the marks left when they removed them from their necks at night) into the dining area. We had no choice! As compliant students we had to listen to the loud, powerful, eclectic sampling beats of Snoop Doggy Dog as he was known in those days or Wu-Tang Clan and eat our fish fingers while also digesting the thunderous bass beats.

Thinking back though this gang seemed to be more interested in the fashion of the culture than the music. One of my friends said that these guys cared and knew more about their outer garments than knowing all about the artists they were listening to and in turn subjecting the rest of the school to! They were posers basically yet idolized by most of the girls in the school.
They would lean by the benches in the lower school canteen sporting the latest trainers, of which the laces had to be left undone, and the very loose-fitting over-sized trousers that were practically falling down to reveal their designer underwear. Just what you wanted to see when taking a bite from a cheese and ham baguette! Baseball caps would be firmly placed on their heads so you couldn’t quite see what they were looking at or whether they were even awake.  Their T-shirts were often very colourful (a brand new one each day I do believe) and sported various Hip-Hop slang terms, brand names or rap artists that were lost on most of us plebs from Dorking. It was all about the labels and saying, wearing and doing the right thing- whatever that was! Expensive Adidas shell-toe trainers were also a prerequisite for even being able to talk to these guys!
I also remember skateboarding being linked to hip hop music. In later life I dated a skateboarder and was routinely forced to endure an hour or more of watching a skateboard video and having to admire the moves and the music. Hip hop music was the background to these videos and also formed a catalogue that would then influence what these guys wore.
When I think of the term ‘hip hop music’ I think of the fashion firstly and a group of guys who epitomised this style. In conclusion, hip hop music passed me by but I was aware of many songs and actually liked a few hip hop artists but never felt I was cool enough to actually be part of this culture. Surely a simple girl from Dorking can’t join the crew! I am not meaning to judge I am sure they were great guys and went on to do well in life. I just didn’t get it! It was probably their way of finding a voice, it may have given them a sense of self and a place of meaning in the whirlwind that is adolescence. S. Craig Watkins writes ‘Yes, hip-hop has been an astonishing money-maker , but it has been an astonishing source of youth expression and empowerment.’