(Salt, of Salt-N-Pepa. Photo: The Soapbox Presents)

Touted as “the most credible brand in Hip-Hop,” the Rock The Bells organization—founded by iconic rap pioneer LL Cool J—recently celebrated the success of its Hip-Hop Was Born Here docuseries with a New York stoop-and-sidewalk block party held alongside New York Fashion Week.    

Despite the on-and-off rain that preceded the event, titled The Soapbox Presents: Stoop Sessions, The Mixtape, The Hip-Hop Edition, everything went off without a hitch. Welcoming an elite mix of rap music’s finest to the legendary borough of Brooklyn, hip-hop stars including Big Daddy Kane, Roxanne Shanté, Salt (of Salt-N-Pepa), and Rapsody were all in attendance and gave electrifying performances, and commentary on the evolution of hip-hop and the impact it’s had on their careers.

(All Photos: The Soapbox Presents)

“I remember my first hip-hop experience, as a kid, was in the Roosevelt Projects. It was the first time I heard a DJ play ‘Love Is The Message’ and saw the formation of a mic-line. I was blown away, and from that point on—at a block party—I didn’t want to play anymore, I wanted to rhyme,” said Big Daddy Kane during his sidewalk performance.  

(Big Daddy Kane. Photo: The Soapbox Presents)

Describing her foray into music (and what critics claim constitutes a great MC), Shanté broke out into a full-length freestyle while introducing the accompanying Stoop Session house band, exclaiming, “Not only do I freestyle, I freestyle with a smile!” Standing on the stoop of a red-painted door front—facing the event’s packed streetside crowd—Shanté added, “Hip-hop was born here.”  

(Roxanne Shanté. Photo: The Soapbox Presents)

Working alongside The Soapbox Presents—a cultural preservation platform—and intersecting at a place “where culture meets experience,” Rock The Bells has added another notch on its belt of definitive hip-hop event curation with this month’s collaborative Brooklyn ‘stoop session.’

 

For more information on RTB’s initiatives and upcoming events, please visit their website.