EXCERPTS FROM "EMERALD STREET: A HISTORY OF HIP HOP IN SEATTLE" BY DAUDI ABE

Any discussion about the roots of Seattle hip-hop must begin in the Central District (CD), the traditional home of Seattle’s African American community. As Dr. Quintard Taylor wrote in his book, The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era, “Black Seattle through much of the twentieth century was synonymous with the Central District, a four-square-mile section near the geographic center of the isthmus that constitutes the city.” Although the first Black resident, Manuel Lopes, from Cape Verde, arrived in 1858, the city did not have a significant African American presence until the World War II migration, which increased the population from 3,789 in 1940 to 15,666 in 1950. By 1970, Seattle had a population of 37,868 African Americans, with the vast majority residing in the Central District. 

By the mid-1960s, eight of every ten Black residents in the city lived in the Central District. As more Black people moved to Seattle, they faced individual discrimination, neighborhood associations that maintained restrictive covenants, and “redlining” by the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), which actively encouraged disinvestment in Black neighborhoods by discouraging loans in those areas from banks and other financial institutions. After years of demonstrations and civil disobedience, “open housing” - the right of individuals to live where they wished, regardless of their race - finally became law in Seattle on April 19, 1968. The legislation was sponsored by Sam Smith, the first African American member of the city council, and passed by the council two weeks after Martin Luther King’s assassination in Memphis. In some ways, open housing helped set the stage for the eventual fragmentation of Seattle’s Black community. By the early 1970s, thanks in part to open housing legislation at both the local and national levels, African Americans began to reside in previously all-white communities. These newcomers to suburban cities in western Washington—such as Kent, Federal Way, and Auburn—included former inner-city residents as well as those who had moved to Seattle from across the nation, with no prior ties to the traditional African American community.

Beginning in 1970, Seattle’s Black population expanded south into the Rainier Valley, doubling the geographic area but not the population of African Americans in the city. As those Black residents moved south, they integrated previously white neighborhoods. They were also joined by new immigrants from Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the African continent. By the year 2000, Southeast Seattle, known locally as the South End (zip code 98118), would become one of the most racially diverse neighborhoods not only in Seattle but in the entire United States. Hip-hop arrived in Seattle in the 1980s amid these rapidly changing ethnic and racial dynamics. In many ways, the rise of Sir Mix-A-Lot in the 1990s or Macklemore in the second decade of the 21st century reflects the unique social climate in which each emerged.  

Emerald Steret Boys posing at the Westin Hotel skybridge in 1982. From left: Eddie "Sugar Bear" Wells, James "Captain Crunch" Croone, and Robert "Sweet J" Jamerson. Credit Kristine Larsen, courtesy Daudi Abe.

Beginning with the release of “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang on New Jersey-based Sugar Hill Records in 1979, hip-hop sent cultural shockwaves through young people in the CD and the South End, which would eventually travel to other parts of the city. As neighborhoods transformed and gentrification became an issue, local hip-hop was there to document the changes. 

In 2014, Dumi “Draze” Maraire Jr. released the single and video “The Hood Ain’t The Same,” which addressed gentrification in the CD. Shot around the Central District and the south end, the lyrics and images focused on historic people and places that traditionally marked the Black community in Seattle. For instance, the building that for decades was the home of The Facts, Seattle’s oldest Black newspaper, founded in 1961 by Fitzgerald Beaver, located on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Cherry Street, had been converted into a dog daycare and grooming facility. Also highlighted was the phenomenon of longtime residents who wished to remain in the community, but the sudden steep increase in property values made paying the taxes on their homes virtually impossible on a fixed income.

For most of the 1980s, much of the world outside the Pacific Northwest regarded Seattle hip-hop dismissively, if at all. The double whammy of geographic isolation combined with an initial hesitation by the national mainstream to embrace hip-hop created a lag that the region has subsequently made up for. Today, there is no question that the accumulated expressions, successes, and innovations over 40 years have cemented the city’s legacy as a creative force within hip-hop. 

The Rocket, September 1990. Courtesy UW Special Collections.

REFLECTIONS

Since the publication of Emerald Street, much has happened while local culture continues to curate and nurture multiple elements of Seattle’s hip-hop scene. 

• The passing in March 2025 of ‘Nasty’ Nes Rodriguez, considered the ‘Godfather of Seattle Hip Hop,’ host of “Freshtracks” on KFOX, the first rap radio show west of the Mississippi, and cofounder of the historic NastyMix Records

• The 20th anniversary of 206 Zulu in 2024 

• Veteran local writer Novocaine132 expanding the canon with the release of his 2025 book The Birth of Seattle Rap 

• Super producer Jake One’s 2022 best rap song and best rap performance Grammy nominations for his work on J. Cole’s hit “my.life” featuring 21 Savage and Morray 

• Jake’s mentor, the legendary Vitamin D, earned a 2025 regional Emmy award for his production work on the theme for the show “The Day With Trae” on Converge Media 

• Two-time world breaking champion crew Massive Monkees reopening their studio, The Beacon, in 2022 and celebrating the annual Massive Monkees Day 2025 in Seattle at the Neptune Theatre 

• Graffiti supply store and community exhibition space Art Primo continues to thrive on Capitol Hill 

• Artists like Travis Thompson’s 2022 guest appearance on the acclaimed FX series “Reservation Dogs,” and Gifted Gab writing the Seattle Storm’s walkout theme song for the 2025 season 

Though always active and vibrant, the forward path of the culture in Seattle, as noted in the conclusion of Emerald Street, “only takes shape as fresh generations of DJs, graffiti writers, artists, b-girls and b-boys, MCs, beatboxers, teachers, journalists, designers, researchers, promoters, broadcasters, filmmakers, activists and others interpret what hip-hop means to them in the context of their own lives and experiences.”    

SEATTLE HIP HOP PLAYLIST

• “Christmas Rap” - Emerald Street Boys (1983)

• “Posse on Broadway” - Sir Mix-A-Lot (1988)

• “He’s Incredible” - Nerdy B & Chelly Chell (1989)

• “La Femme Fetal” - Digable Planets (1993)

• “Pork Pie Stride” - Sharpshooters (1994)

• “Sunshine” - DMS (1994)

• “Central District” - Laura “Piece” Kelly (2003)

• “Joe Metro” - Blue Scholars (2007)

• “Home” - Jake One (2008)

• “The Town” - Macklemore (2010)

• “Queens” - THEESatisfaction (2012)

• “Irony on 23rd” - Draze (2016)

• “Come Correct” - Gifted Gab & Blimes Brixton (2018)

• “Insecure” - Mafi D ft. 2oopaid TK (2022)

• “Rise & Shine” - Travis Thompson & Jake One (2023)

• “DAOT” - DoNormaal (2024)

Image courtesy University of Washington Press.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daudi Abe is a professor, writer, and historian who has created and delivered curriculum covering topics such as culture, race, gender, education, hip-hop, and sports spanning four decades.

He has taught at all levels, from kindergarten to graduate school, serving for the last twenty years as a Humanities instructor and course developer at Seattle Central College. His courses include HUM 105: Intercultural Communication - Special Focus: Race & Policing, HUM 125: Hip-Hop Theory & Culture, and HUM 130: Sports & Culture.

Dr. Abe has been featured locally in The Stranger, The Seattle Times, and Crosscut, and appeared on national media such as MSNBC and NPR. He has previously served as History of Race & Policing curriculum consultant at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission and Faculty Coordinator for the Academy for Rising Educators at SCC.

Dr. Abe holds an MA in Human Development and earned a PhD in Education from the University of Washington.