LOS ANGELES — Two years ago at the California African American Museum in downtown Los Angeles, three titans of East Coast rap converged for a roundtable: influential “Paid in Full” rapper Rakim; Public Enemy’s cofounder Chuck D; and indie rap royalty Talib Kweli.
Called “Sweat the Technique: The Politics and Poetics of Hip-Hop,” the event attracted a standing-room-only crowd in South Los Angeles. Little did they know that the roundtable — which was supposed to be the first in a months-long L.A. Phil series called Power to the People! — would lay the groundwork for UCLA’s just-announced Hip Hop Initiative, or that Chuck D would serve as its inaugural artist in residence.
“The room was sweating. It was on fire,” recalls says H. Samy Alim, UCLA professor of anthropology and director of the university’s new initiative. He said the event set the template for “what we can do when we all come together to showcase hip-hop’s power and strength.”
