Hip-Hop Culture’s 50th Anniversary On CBC Radio's Metro Morning

Ajani Charles For CBC Radio’s Metro Morning

Last Friday, August 11, 2023, was the 50th anniversary of hip-hop culture.

I had the good fortune of being interviewed on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning about the momentous occasion, the impact of hip-hop culture on a global scale, Toronto’s hip-hop culture, Project T-Dot, which is my documentary project on Toronto’s hip-hop culture, community, and history, and other related topics.

The interview can be streamed above, and CBC Radio's Metro Morning informs listeners about what is happening throughout the Greater Toronto Area. It offers listeners an optimistic, sometimes humorous view of the world and the day's more serious news.

I was, and still am, very grateful for the opportunity to speak to CBC and Metro Morning’s massive audience. I am also thankful for the professionalism of the CBC Radio team I worked with, including but not limited to the professionalism of host Ramraajh Sharvediran and producer Rahma Shafi, who conducted a pre-interview with me 48 hours before.

I arrived at the front entrance of CBC’s offices in the downtown core of Toronto at approximately 7:10 AM EST, and I met my longtime friend and colleague Neil Donaldson, also known as Logik or Logikal Ethix, before we were escorted to the CBC Radio studios after a brief security check-in process.

Despite meditating a couple of times, I was weary because I used an enormous amount of time, energy, and attention to complete a couple of proposals the day before. Still, I was excited about the interview. I focused nonetheless due to my morning and pre-interview routines, which included the previously-mentioned meditations, the recital of affirmations, some visualization exercises, and more. Walking to the studio also contributed to my alertness while on air.

Photographer, Director, Producer, Mental Health Advocate, Canon Canada Ambassador: Ajani Charles, Location: Canadian Broadcasting Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2023, Photographer: Neil Donaldson Also Known As Logikal Ethix

After my friend and multi-year classmate, since first grade Nicole Singh introduced me to him, Neil was one of the first people I told about and documented for Project T-Dot in 2007.

He was one of the first people to believe in the project and my career path; he has been a member of Toronto’s hip-hop community, culture, and history for longer than I have been. I was lucky to have him there, and seeing him helped me recall many of the essential points I articulated on air.

I am thankful that he briefly documented my conversation, as evidenced by some of the photographs in this article.

The CBC offices are quite large, and following a short elevator ride, I entered the area wherein the CBC Radio studios were located. A typical field of cubicles adjacent to it featured outdated Dell computers that led me to reminisce on one of the former computing giant’s slogans during the early 2000s, “Dude, you’re getting a Dell.”

After producer Susan McReynolds provided me with some instructions, she told Neil and me that there was a chance that my interview could be delayed, as Metro Morning would potentially focus on a large fire that was occurring in the Etobicoke region of Toronto.

She kindly found me a coffee, which is surprisingly difficult to come by at CBC, despite Metro Morning being recorded when most of its guests and employees probably need coffee the most.

Location: Canadian Broadcasting Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2023, Photographer: Ajani Charles

Thankfully, by the time I began drinking my coffee, the fire in Etobicoke was contained, and my interview was scheduled for 7:45 AM after some brief sports reportage.

After a minute of meditation and a few minutes of mentally reviewing some of my talking points, I patiently waited to be brought into a recording studio that Toronto’s Mayor Olivia Chow occupied.

I began visualizing myself giving Mayor Chow a tour of my second Project T-Dot exhibit as I started photographing her post-interview conversation outside the recording studio when Susan told me it was time for my interview and promptly brought me into the recording studio.

Once I sat down to speak with host Ramraajh Sharvediran, I was at ease, Ramraajh’s questions were concise and thoughtful, and an interview that lasted nearly six minutes felt less than a minute.

As I mentioned during the interview, hip-hop’s global impact since 1973 has made the cultural movement ubiquitous and pervasive, influencing billions worldwide. It is a meta-culture that transcends and incorporates numerous cultures. Hip-hop culture is art, fashion, music, and so much more; an astronaut has likely listened to hip-hop music in the vacuum of space, and someone has undoubtedly created (hip-hop) graffiti in regions as remote as Nepal and Antarctica.

It is almost inconceivable that a culture that was at least in part initiated by Clive Campbell, better known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc, and his Black and Latino teenage friends at a party that took place at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx borough of New York on August 11th, 1973, would spread throughout New York City and eventually around America and the world, evolving to its current state.

Journalist: Ramraajh Sharvediran, Location: Canadian Broadcasting Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2023, Photographer: Ajani Charles

The creativity, struggles, and other experiences of marginalized inner-city youth have touched more lives than New York City’s hip-hop pioneers could have imagined before the late 90s.

Among other things, I also discussed the uniqueness of Toronto’s hip-hop culture, how Toronto’s hip-hop culture is a reflection of Toronto’s cultural diversity, how a lack of infrastructure, innovation, government support, and capital led Toronto’s hip-hop pioneers to be far more resourceful than they would have been in a city like New York or Atlanta, the sacrifices made by Toronto’s hip-hop pioneers, and how a superstar like Aubrey Drake Graham, professionally known as Drake, could not have come from or represented any other city in the world.

I spoke about Project T-Dot and how hip-hop culture, in general, has impacted my life, why I believe Toronto’s hip-hop culture and community will become far more influential in the coming years, and the interview led me to become far more motivated to complete all aspects of Project T-Dot, regardless of the challenges that come with a comprehensive documentary project that I have been dedicated to for the last 17 years.

I ended the interview by recommending that Metro Morning play Northern Touch by Rascalz featuring Kardinal Offishall, Checkmate, Thrust and Choclair, as it is a Canadian and Toronto hip-hop classic record, and I encouraged everyone in Toronto to attend the Block Party by Manifesto Community Projects.

The Block Party took place that evening at RBC Echo Beach, it was a huge success and the most influential, hip-hop-centric festival produced by a mostly Toronto-based organization, and I went on to document it for Project T-Dot, between approximately 8:00 PM EST and 2:30 AM EST the following morning, as I have done since 2007.

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