The photo was taken after my 58th birthday. See: the royal purple Adidas Gazelles I’m wearing. Wherever I go people comment that they love those sneakers.
Over the weekend I watched on Channel 7 a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop.
I played Run-DMC on air when I was a disc jockey on FM radio from 1985 to 1987 in college.
In a segment on the TV show a video showed Run-DMC taking off their “three stripe” sneakers at a concert and waving the Adidas in the air.
Fans in the audience took off their sneakers and held them up too. From then on Adidas gave the rappers a licensing deal. Run-DMC recorded a song “My Adidas.”
I refrain from buying Nike products after reading the memoir The Longest Race by a female athlete who exposed the wrongdoings of the famous coach who ruled an elite Nike running team she trained on for the Olympics.
I prefer Adidas because I’m taken in with “the three stripe life” motto. Finding the purple Gazelles was heaven. Purple is my favorite color.
I don’t know that Adidas has been accused of scandals the way Nike has.
To end here I’ll say that unlike critics of hip-hop I think rap music is great because it’s “true to the game” of how people live on the street. It’s real-life music that gives everyone the chance to author their destiny. No matter where they start out.
Hip-hop is self-expression at its most exultant. The fact that hip-hop is a global phenom that has gone from the Bronx to Berlin and all over the world is a testament to how “People have the Power” to change their lives for the better through music. In turn empowering listeners to dream big.
Give me the three stripe life any day. How far will my Gazelles take me? As far as I can go–and I want to go far. I choose to get excited at every new birthday.
You have no idea when you’re 22 how your life will turn out. Heck–you don’t think of 58 when you’re in your twenties.
I wouldn’t change anything that happened to me along the way to getting here. In the end hip-hop is about hope–and I’ve always been about giving others hope that you can have a better life after adversity. Even while living in hardship that hasn’t gone away you can find something to smile about.
Hip-hop is that cheerleader for millions.
We can’t give up the fight to create the world we want to see. We owe a debt to the founders of hip-hop for changing the world for the better for their adoring fans who see themselves reflected in the music.
One rapper had been scratching by the time he was 4 years old. At 15 he was signed as the opening act for Run-DMC on their worldwide tour. A true American success story.
Here’s to another 50 years!
Left of the Dial 