FBA Voices 🇺🇸

Before Big Mama Thornton, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and James Brown, there was Louis Jordan. He was 57 in this clip, performing “Saturday Night Fish Fry” three decades after releasing it. He’s rapping and playing saxophone—the same Louis Jordan original Jamaican toasters like Count Matchuki and Coxson Dodd got their style from.

16 years ago today, we lost Rodger Clayton, co-founder of Uncle Jamm’s Army and one of the most important pioneers in Los Angeles hip-hop history. When Rodger co-founded Uncle Jamm’s Army in the late 1970s, the West Coast had no clue who Kool Herc was. LA had its own musical movement developing, rooted in Black American funk, R&B and dance culture. Rodger Clayton and Alonzo Williams are the two men who established the foundation for hip-hop on the West Coast. Before West Coast hip-hop became a worldwide phenomenon, these men were building the culture, packing arenas and creating opportunities for an entire generation of artists. From the LA Sports Arena to the Hollywood Palladium, Uncle Jamm’s Army helped establish a musical identity that would eventually influence the entire world. Rodger Clayton deserves far more recognition in hip-hop history. You cannot tell the story of West Coast hip-hop without telling the story of Uncle Jamm’s Army and the World Class Wreckin’ Cru. Rest in peace to a true Los Angeles music pioneer.

The narrative that hip-hop 'came from nothing' is a profound insult to Black American music history. Hip-hop inherited over a century of rich musical traditions, sampling from genres like jazz, blues, and R&B that had to innovate from scratch. #HipHopHistory #MusicAnalysis