The Symbolism Of The Radio: LL Cool J to Mac Dre

I was thinking about my last preceding post.

The symbolism of "the radio" was quite evident in the aerosol art of the NY City Breakers in Graffitti Rock (it was spray painted on the DJ booth):

The radio or "ghetto blaster" as it was better known by certainly had its roots deep in the elemental foundations of B-boy break dance, graffiti and hip hop culture.

My particular interest is in my observation of its transcontinental omnipresent appeal that it had–the urban appeal identifying with the brothers and sistas in the hip hop movement in New York and elsewhere. Whether in the warlike ghettos of the South Bronx (or any other borough in New York) transcontinentally to the streets of Vallejo, CA (which felt itself a ghetto in its own right), the concept of the radio was something symbolic to hip hop culture and was ever present blasting away at the structure of oppressive power dynamics of the late 1980's and early 1990's (or at least heralding a music of resistance of urban African American culture).

I feel, however, that Mac Dre of Vallejo's "Crest Side" neighborhood (a rough neighborhood adjoining Marine World Parkway) changed the signification of the radio as it relates to his own music in the sense that he states that he transmutes the limitations of the radio, perhaps eluding to censorship issues at the time, when he says "I'm too hard for the fucking radio..." released in 1989-1990.