What Bay Hip-Hops Past Says About Its Future
b'This story is part of\\xa0That\\u2019s My Word, KQED\\u2019s year-long exploration of Bay Area hip-hop history, with new content dropping all throughout 2023.\\nDave \\u201cDavey D\\u201d Cook\\xa0is a cornerstone of hip-hop culture.\\nHe currently co-hosts KPFA\\u2019s\\xa0Hard Knock Radio\\xa0and serves as a processor of Africana studies at San Francisco State University, where he teaches popular courses on hip-hop and African American music. Davey D is a practitioner of the culture as well as a critic. Over the span of five decades, he\\u2019s been an MC, DJ, journalist, activist \\u2014 the list goes on.\\nOriginally from The Bronx, New York, Davey D was there when this thing we call hip-hop was in its nascent form, before it even had a name. When he arrived in the Bay Area in the early \\u201980s, one of his missions as a UC Berkeley student was to lend some insight to this burgeoning culture. So he put on a few events, one of which was The Day in Hip-Hop on Oct. 24, 1984. With the 50th anniversary of hip-hop at the front of mind, I spoke to Davey D about what the culture was like back then and how far it has come.'