Google is celebrating the 44th anniversary of hip-hop today with an interactive doodle on its homepage. Kool Herc’s party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx 44 years ago is cited as the crystallization of influences that became known as hip-hop. Google’s keyword team spoke with Kevin Burke, Ryan Germick Perla Campos who are behind the doodle. They also worked with hip-hop legends Fab 5 Freddy who was the first host of Yo! MTV Raps and Def Jam logo creator and visual artist Cey Adams. Check out their story behind the doodle,

The Doodle pays homage to many early pioneers of Hip Hop. How did you decide who to include?

Perla: We started with a big list of people and narrowed it down based on a ton of research and conversations with close partners versed in all things Hip Hop-like Lyor Cohen, current head of YouTube music and a legend in the music industry who has signed some of the greatest Hip Hop artists ever. We also wanted to make sure we represented the diversity in Hip Hop and featured the women who were a huge part of the early days but often aren’t talked about.

Kevin: Part of the Doodle is a “record crate” that has legendary samples you can listen to. You’ve probably heard these samples in a Jay-Z or Kanye West song but few people know who actually created them. Perla and I were in tears one day because we added a bunch of fresh beats from our childhood-the samples behind the Puff Daddy, Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. songs we loved growing up. We were totally going down memory lane.

 

How does this compare to other Doodles?

Perla: We’ve never done a Doodle like this before, both because of the technical challenges and the many voices and collaborators we wanted to include. It was both unnerving and exciting to tackle this because so many people have been touched by Hip Hop in some way-so how do you do it justice?

Ryan: There’s a lot that went into figuring out what bitrate of audio you needed to scratch records, how to sync up the beats correctly, and the complexities around animations were firsts for us. We’re always trying to one-up ourselves, to exceed the expectations of people who love our Doodles. This one represented all the things Doodles are good at: storytelling, interactivity and education.

How did you get into Hip Hop? What’s your earliest memory of Hip Hop?

Kevin: I got a lot of exposure to Hip Hop growing up in Louisiana. I was this artist kid in a suburban conservative area-I identified with the spirit, angst and celebratory energy of Hip Hop. I’m also a music trivia nerd-when I was a kid, my dad would quiz me whenever a song came on the radio. I’ve tried to work that music trivia into this Doodle at every chance.

Ryan: Hip Hop was part of the fabric of my upbringing. I grew up in suburban Indiana-in an environment dramatically different from the Bronx where Hip Hop was born-but as soon as we got cable, I started watching “Yo! MTV Raps.” One of the most exciting things about working on this Doodle was that we got to collaborate with people like Fab 5 Freddy and Prince Paul, one of my all-time favorite hip hop producers.

 

Cey: One of my earliest memories is when I went to the Jamaica Armory to see Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. I realized that Hip Hop belonged to us-it was music for myself and my friends, something that nobody could take away from us.

 

Fab: The guys who wanted to be DJs and rappers had this sense of wonder and energy about them. They were like engineers in the way they worked with their sound systems-the cables, the speakers, the amps. Those DJs were a bunch of smart cats figuring out something that was advanced and revolutionary during that time. I felt comfortable around them during a time when there was rough stuff going on in the streets.

 

How do you view the evolution of Hip Hop over the last 44 years? Where is it going?

 

Fab: The essence of Hip Hop culture at its base is like an algorithm-it can be done in any language and by any nationality out there, and when done right it grows exponentially. From the very beginnings in the 70s, this culture was generated by those who had very little, and took those bare essentials to say: “I’m here, I matter.” And that has reverberated continuously for decades. So I don’t like to think of old school vs. new school, I’m a “now school” person. Hip Hop marches on-it will always reinvent itself.

 

Cey, you’ve worked as an artist for decades, across a huge variety of mediums. What was it like to design something for the Google homepage?

Cey: Graffiti has always been associated with vandalism to some degree-in the early days, I had to tell people that my art was different from people who were just tagging. But we’re capital “A” artists. All we’re doing is using a spray can instead of a paintbrush. And now Google is putting this piece of art on the homepage, which will be seen by people all over the world. That’s really exciting to me.

What do you hope the audience gets from this Doodle?

Perla: My biggest aspiration for the Doodle is that people see themselves in it, that there’s something that speaks to and represents them on the Google homepage. Hip Hop originated as a way for young people to focus on something positive in the midst of the negative forces around them, so I want people to feel that same hope and positivity from this Doodle.

Ryan: I hope people can cut through some of the negative stereotypes associated with Hip Hop -it’s not without its shortcomings but it’s such an important part of our culture. The Bronx was not an easy place to grow up in the 70’s, but such a vibrant culture was born out of it.

Cey: I want people to get a Hip Hop education, and to understand that the music, the art, the dance, the fashion, it’s all part of a collective lifestyle of people who wanted to change their circumstances. And it will always be there-and will continue to spread around the world-because there’s always some young person who wants to change their circumstances.

Fab: For those who have grown up with this, they’re gonna be amazed to see such a huge part of their lives acknowledged. I want people to see that Hip Hop affects everybody, not just youth culture. It continues to be important, relevant and alive. And it’s happening in every corner of the globe.

Kevin: I love that we’re celebrating a party-people dancing and performing, there’s something really positive about that.

CLEVELAND (October 20, 2011) – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is pleased to host a special lecture “Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years of Last Great Record Label” on Wednesday, November 9 at 7 p.m. in the Foster Theater. Bill Adler and Cey Adams will tell their story with pictures and video based on their new book about the first 25 years of Def Jam Records. This event is free with a reservation. Seating is limited. RSVP information is as follows:

ROCK HALL MEMBERS

Rock Hall Members can RSVP starting at 10 a.m. EST on Monday, October 24 through the Rock Hall website at https://tickets.rockhall.com.

GENERAL PUBLIC

Non-Rock Hall members can RSVP starting at 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday, October 25 through the Rock Hall website at https://tickets.rockhall.com, by phone at (216) 515-8426, or at the Rock Hall Box Office.

Def Jam is the last record label to enjoy the kind of widespread cultural influence once enjoyed by the great labels of the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies – back before actual records became obsolete. Launched in 1984, Def Jam’s roster during the last 25 years – starting with LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy, and going on to include Method Man, Jay-Z, DMX, Ja Rule, Ludacris, Ashanti, Kanye West, Rick Ross, Young Jeezy, Rihanna, and many others – has created “the sound of young America,” much like Motown’s artists provided so much of the soundtrack of the Sixties.

An oral history composed of frank and amusing interviews includes all of the label’s key artists and executives. The text is strikingly complemented by images from some of the best-known photographers of the era, including Glen E. Friedman, Jonathan Mannion, and Annie Leibovitz. It was designed by Cey Adams, Def Jam’s founding creative director; and coauthored by Bill Adler, Def Jam’s founding publicist, and by Dan Charnas, author of The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop (New American Library 2010).

About Bill Adler

Bill Adler has devoted the last 30 years to a career in hip-hop during which he’s worked as a journalist, critic, publicist, biographer, archivist, label executive, curator, editor, documentary filmmaker, and teacher. He met Cey Adams when the two of them began working at Def Jam in 1984. Over the next six years, Bill was the director of publicity for Russell Simmons’ Rush Artist Management, working closely with Kurtis Blow, Whodini, Run-DMC, Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Slick Rick, Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim, Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, Big Daddy Kane, EPMD, Stetsasonic, De La Soul, the Jungle Brothers, 3rd Bass, and others.

Between 2003 and 2007, Bill ran the Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery, a pioneering art space devoted mostly to hip-hop photography. In 2004, Bill teamed up with Perry Films to write and produce “And You Don’t Stop: 30 Years of Hip-Hop,” a five-part documentary history of hip-hop, for VH1. In 2008, Presently, BIll is the director of the Adler Archive, a unique research library of hip-hop-oriented books, photographs, newspaper and magazine stories, audio and video recordings, and advertisements and flyers.

About Cey Adams

Cey Adams started writing graffiti in the late Seventies. Between 1984 and 1999,he was creative director at Def Jam Recordings, during which time he worked with everyone from Run-DMC, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy to Redman, Foxy Brown and Jay-Z. He and his partner Steve Carr ran the Drawing Board, a design firm which counted among its clients Mary J. Blige, the Notorious B.I.G., the Geto Boyz, Ice Cube, and Sean “Diddy” Combs.

In recent years, Cey has worked with Dave Chappelle, Magic Johnson, Adidas, Nike, HBO, and Coca Cola. Cey was a key consultant to Seattle’s Experience Music Project during the conception and construction of their permanent hip-hop exhibit in 2000. In 2007 he curated “Untitled: An Exhibition of Original Skateboard Art” for the Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery in New York. In 2008, he debuted as the co-author (with Bill Adler) of “DEFinition: _the Art and Design of Hip-Hop” (Collins Design), a groundbreaking survey of the visual impact of hip-hop on American culture during the last 30 years. In 2010 he designed work for “Looking at Music 3.0”, an exhibition exploring the influence of music on contemporary art practices at MoMA in New York.