In a special conversation event, we chart hip hop’s first five decades, from its birth in the block parties of the Bronx and origins in Jamaica, to commercial gangsta-rap and right up to today’s artists. We discuss how this American revolution in music, dance, and art spread across the global cultural landscape. Hear four speakers passionately bring to life the culture and music – but also political theory, American history, and sociology. With our own sub-genres here in the UK, we’ll look at the key moments that led to this country’s enthusiastic embrace and interpretation of hip-hop, particularly by Afro-Caribbean communities. Part of Futures – a free festival of discovery that celebrates innovative and world-class research taking place at universities across the South West. It’s funded by the UKRI. SPEAKERS MYKAELL RILEY Senior Lecturer College of Design, Creative & Digital Industries University of Westminster. Mykaell is Director of The Black Music Research Unit (BMRU), and senior researcher and curator at the University of Westminster. Central to Mykaell’s research is his work on mapping Black British music. Bass Culture is a response to the disengagement and lack of education surrounding the heritage of Jamaican and Jamaican-influenced music in Britain over the last six decades. Mykaell’s career started as a founder member of the British roots Reggae band Steel Pulse who would go onto receive a Grammy. Over the years he has performed, produced, managed and consulted on many successful artists and their projects. As a professional writer/producer, Mykaell’s work has encompassed TV, Film and Theatre, resulting in over eleven UK top twenty positions, and three UK number ones. LIZZIE BOWES Research Associate Black Music Research Unit Universities of Westminster and Bristol Lizzie Bowes is Research Associate at the Black Music Research Unit. She supports Dr. Mykaell Riley, Director of the BMRU, as the Unit continues to operate as the foremost research centre for the study of Black-British music and culture. Outside of her work for the BMRU, Lizzie is an AHRC funded PhD student at the University of Bristol, working on an interdisciplinary project on Black-British rap and autofiction. ROB TURNER Senior Lecturer in 20th and 21st-Century Literature English University of Exeter Rob Turner’s research is focused on American literature, with a particular interest in experiments in sound. He writes regularly about experimental music for the Wire magazine. Current projects include a book on sonic ecology and poetry, and an edited collection on hip-hop, literature, and American culture. Recent publications include two book chapters on the politics of epic (considering works by Ezra Pound and Will Alexander), and an analysis of Samuel Delany’s Afrofuturist metafictions. SIMON TOPPING Associate Professor School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences University of Plymouth Simon Topping is Associate Professor of United States History at Plymouth University. He is the author of Lincoln’s Lost Legacy: The Republican Party and the African American Vote, 1928-1952 (University Press of Florida, 2008) which was short-listed for the 2009 Neustadt prize. He has published a number of articles on the importation of American racism into Northern Ireland during the Second World War.