It's Notes from America, I'm Kai Wright.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of hip hop, five decades between the moment that hip

hop emerged from a youth scene in the Bronx as this scrappy art and what we now know

as a multi billion dollar global business.

This week we look back at one chapter in that long remarkable story, a time in the

late 80s and early 90s when the music became a platform for a particular set of pro-black

political ideas that shaped kids like me.

Producer Christopher M. Johnson takes us back to that era and asks, where did go?

So Kai Wright, Christopher Johnson, where did you go up?

I grew up in Indianapolis.

Did you get into hip hop when you were a kid?

I did.

I mean, I wasn't like one of those like heads, you know, like I wasn't like steeped

in any music.

I just remember the fat boys.

I can say that was the first leg group I was like, yeah, that boys are a back, right?

I've never heard anyone say fat boys was there like on tray to hip hop, I'm not knocking

it.

That's just different.

It may have been because I was young and they were silly and fun, you know, and like.

And do you remember when you started getting into hip hop that was maybe a little more serious

or even political?

...