A Guest in the House of Hip-Hop. Mickey Hess

I thought of his song “Taken,” where he borrows Rakim’s old line “Ladies and gentlemen, you’re about to see/a pastime hobby about to be … taken to the maximum” but changes that last part to “taken away from us.” I worried I’d taken hip-hop out of its proper context and that teaching hip-hop to college students was just yet another way to remove it from where it began.

      Grimm captivated my students with a talk that ranged from his experiences riding on top of Mr. Snuffleupagus as a child actor on Sesame Street to recording MF DOOM’s album Operation: Doomsday next door to a meth lab. He autographed some books, then I volunteered to personally drive him to the very clean and affordable New Jersey Transit train that would take him back to New York. I waved goodbye, then I opened my new copy of Grimm’s memoir, Sentences, to read the inscription: “To Dr. Hess—Thanks for keeping hip-hop alive.” I couldn’t pat myself on the back for it—even Vanilla Ice had his black supporters—but I found it encouraging that a rapper saw the value in a college course on rap. A week later, Grimm called to ask for my address so he could mail me my three hundred dollars.