“Something 2 Dance 2”: Electro Hop in 1980s Los Angeles and Its Afrofuturist Link

Abstract

Los Angeles's hip hop culture developed in the early 1980s. Marked by the dynamism and diversity of the city's residents (DjeDje and Meadows 1998, 1), Los Angeles-based hip hop belongs to a rich black cultural legacy. Like the jazz created during the Golden Era (1920-29), the gospel innovations of the 1960s, and the soul explorations of the 1960s and early 1970s, electro hop is part of a trajectory where innovation in black Los Angeles contributes constantly to American culture. Electro hop, or techno hop, is a subgenre of electro and hip hop--a fusion of both--cultivated almost exclusively in Los Angeles during the 1980s; primarily dance music, it derived from electronic music and forms of production. Granting its relative short popular existence, roughly from 1983 to 1988, electro hoppers formulated a subculture comprised of an impressive list of artists, recordings, independent records labels, and widely attended events hosted at high schools, clubs, skating rinks, sport arenas, and coliseums. Furthermore, electro hop's notoriety played a formidable role in the restructuring of KDAY-1580 AM in Los Angeles. As with hip hop on the East Coast, electro hop was created and enjoyed primarily by marginalized young people of color--although, in both cases, young black males figured most prominently. Unlike East Coast hip hop, which experienced national visibility through the 1980s, electro hop remained largely a regional musical style--even when groups like the L.A. Dream Team recorded and released studio albums with major record companies such as MCA. Whereas East Coast hip hop producers sampled primarily disco, funk, and soul, electro hop artists focused initially on making their own beats with minimal sampling. And, just as hip hop took the shape of a multifaceted subculture during its nascency in mid-1970s New York--comprised of four elements: DJing, MCing/rapping, break dancing, and graffiti writing--electro hop, too, involved derivations of similar art forms. As gangsta rap's direct precursor, electro hop lacks visibility in formal academic circles. Celebrated accounts on hip hop and its subcategorical manifestations mention electro hop in passing, if at all, when discussing gangsta rap (Kelley 1996, 95; Chang 2005, 301-302). Los Angeles's electro hop community demands consideration. Most accessible information on electro hop comes from the artists themselves and dedicated fans. Some influential electro hop artists like Egyptian Lover and Arabian Prince continue to produce, DJ, and/or perform in the electro genre, thereby expanding upon the music they created in the 1980s. Electro hoppers take advantage of the Internet's potential and use interactive websites like MySpace to share music, memories, and other information. Electro hop fans, too, in both the United States and Europe dedicate time and resources to the dissemination and collection of information by way of the Internet. Loyal fans have formed communities through hip hop web forums and self-made websites. (For a list of relevant electro hop links, see http://musicofblacklosangeles.blogspot.com/.) Other electro hop buffs include Europeans, specifically Germans. Electro hop's early dialogue with the German electronic group Kraftwerk (Egyptian Lover and Arabian Prince 2008, 56; Fleisher 2008, 54) inspired the electro hop sound, perhaps allowing some Germans to relate to it. Whatever the explanation for the fascination, two Germans--Sandro De Gaetani and Stefan Schutze--are responsible for one of the most comprehensive and detailed sources on electro hop, the website West Coast Pioneers. This highly interactive website includes a myriad of primary and secondary sources (interviews, information on recordings and independent record labels, photographs, biographies, and links to useful articles, videos, and other websites). As a versatile subculture grounded in music, electro hop developed in the physical and discursive spaces of 1980s black Los Angeles, although other socialized groups had their impact. …