While some things are initially well-received, Father Time often reveals cracks that have always existed in the facade. Conversely, art that was labeled "niché," can often be better appreciated when present-day perceptions finally match the original intentions.

And sometimes, there are things that have always been dope.

There are two significant 50-year anniversaries occurring in 2022, and 2023, respectively. The first, Francis Ford Coppola's epic, The Godfather, which was released on March 15, 1972. The second, DJ Kool Herc's now legendary Sedgwick Avenue party on August 11, 1973, which is credited as the birth of Hip-Hop.

While at first glance these might seem like polar opposites, these American cultural milestones — built off the sweat equity of outsiders in the country — are actually forever intwined.

Let me explain.

This "Thing of Ours"

Make no mistake, DJ Kool Herc's story is an immigrant's story. The Campbells lived in Franklyn Town in Jamaica where a young Clive Campbell (Herc) heard the music reverberating from local studios like Dynamic Sounds, Treasure Isle, Studio One, and Federal.

“There was a dancehall near where I lived, up in Franklyn Town,” Herc recalled in The Record Players: DJ Revolutionaries. “We used to be playing at marbles and riding our skateboards, used to see the guys bringing the big boxes inside of the handcarts. And before that, a guy used to put up watercolor signs. They used to make watercolor signs and put them on light posts, to let people know there’s going to be a dance coming."

Herc arrived in New York City in 1967 on a cold and snowy November night wearing a corduroy coat and cowboy boots. The fresh powder was as foreign to him as the bright lights emanating from the towering buildings above. His mother, Nettie Campbell, had an apartment at 611 E. 178th Avenue. Herc recalled that the tenement building lacked any yard and gave the impression of a medieval fortress.

His “Americanization” came through music. Whether it was the youth dances he attended at Catholic school, or the parties he accompanied his mother to; the songs by the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, and Aretha Franklin were always in the air. It wasn’t assimilation for the sake of survival; rather, Herc had a profound love of music, which followed him from Jamaica to his new home in the Bronx.

Today, Hip-Hop has become not just the fabric, but the entire tapestry, for popular culture. But in its infancy, it was viewed as an extension of illicit activities by youth collectives like the Black Spades. Ironically, the Black Spades had a vendetta against immigrants (with a perchant for throwing immigrant children in the trash can). Whether a kid was Jamaican or Barbadian — like Herc and Flash — or American born like members Sugarhill Gang, participants were not encouraged to pursue the same "American Dream" forged by Rock and Roll performers.

While much will be made of the violence in The Godfather — like Luca Brasi being strangled to death, and the severed horse head being put in Jack Woltz's bed – the story, is in fact, rooted in the pursuit of the American Dream. While today that Dream might manifest itself in something esoteric like getting rich off buying crypto, or owning real estate in the metaverse, there was time when one generation made sacrifices to improve the conditions for future generations.

The first piece of dialogue we hear in The Godfather is that of aggrieved undertaker, Amerigo Bonasera, who tells Don Corleone, "I believe in America," before explaining how his daughter was savagely brutalized.

Bonasera, himself, pulled himself up by the bootstraps, only to have this tragedy infect his family. But herein lies the real heart of the American Dream we see and feel in both this film, and Hip-Hop culture. There's what you want to do, and what you have to do. It's in the grey areas where men like Michael Corleone become monsters, and DJ's and MC's becomes world famous.

With The Godfather, the Corleones capitalize on a form of retribution that the police can't give Bonasera. With Hip-Hop, DJ Kool Herc isolated the break to give the breakers what they wanted. The latter was viewed by many as a bastardization of the original source material. In a sense, Herc was taking music "law" and enacting his own brand of vigilante justice on the 1's and 2's.

Many will point to more overt connections between Hip-Hop and The Godfather — like lyrics, and album titles (EPMD's Business Never Personal )— but those connections were forged decades after the culture and the film were first created. Instead, we have to look at the nuance. Great art is rarely about mimicry. Rather, it's about challenging convention, and inspiring millions to consider their own hero's journey.