Run-DMC’s ‘Cry for Justice’
Chester Higgins Jr. spent 40 years
as a staff photographer for The Times before retiring in 2014. Writing
from Ethiopia, he described covering Run-DMC at Madison Square Garden in
1986 for a benefit concert against crack cocaine. We never published
photographs from the show or wrote about the performance.
Arriving to photograph this new group
Run-DMC, I had mixed feelings. The music was slamming. The wordplay
structure was mesmerizing, delivered as a diatribe that delineated the
injustices experienced by this generation of young black people living
in a society that held them in contempt. It resonated as a cry for
justice giving voice to frustrations. The music’s relentless tempo,
driving earnestness and poetic structure had become a new creation with
its own energy that spoke to these young people, but I found some of the
lyrics horrifying, especially the use of the word “nigger.”
Growing up in the South, I felt the sting of this derogatory word; to embrace it in a song smacked of self-hate.
But at the same time, it was clear these
entertainers connected with the youth of their generation. The audience
loved them, and I realized how powerful and totally off the radar the
new music called rap had become.
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