Basketball and hip-hop have always gone together, ever since the late ’70s when the Sugarhill Gang, Kurtis Blow and other rappers sang about their favorite players and teams. Heck, even NBA all-star Shaquille O’Neal made rap albums.
A love for both cultures also inspired Lynn native Kevin McDormand, a former DJ who hosted a hip-hop show on his college music station and then spent five seasons as head coach of the Lynn Tech girls basketball team (2007-12)
McDormand, 39, is about to release his first book, “For the Love: The Art of the Hip-Hop Video.” For the project, he interviewed the rappers, directors, actors, dancers, costume designers and others who created 10 of his favorite videos.
“Before I started working on the book, I was ready to dig in online. I wanted to read about these videos and how they were made. There was nothing out there.” So, he decided to do it himself.
“I made a list of about 200 videos that I thought stood out. I contacted the people who made them. Some people I thought I’d have to speak with (but wouldn’t be interested) were, surprising in many cases, very willing to speak with me.”
He narrowed the list to 50, with these 10 making the cut: Danny Brown: “Grown Up”; Madvillain: “All Caps”; Pharoahe Monch: “Broken Again”; Phife Dawg: “Dear Dilla”; Your Ol’ Droog: “We Don’t Know You”; Deca: “Waiting”; Das Racist: “Girl”; Stitches: “Brick In Yo Face”; Oddisee: “Brea”; and Aesop Rock: “Zero Dark Thirty.”
A second volume is planned, he said.
Does he have a favorite among the 10?
After much prodding, he said “Girl,” by Das Racist, is closest to his heart.
McDormand grew up in Lynn, on Broadway, and attended Sisson Elementary and Pickering Middle schools. He played baseball in the Wyoma Little League and basketball with the St. Pius CYO team. “I’m still in touch with some of those kids,” he said.
A graduate from The Governor’s Academy in Newbury, he then graduated from the University of Chicago, where he got one of three coveted disc jockey slots on the college station, WHPK, spinning nothing but hip-hop. “We were the first station to play hip-hop in Chicago. One day, MF Doom, a reclusive rapper who wore a mask, walked into the station unannounced. He’s a hero of mine, and he just showed up to do my show … and he wasn’t wearing the mask. It was really wild.
“(WHPK) was an important platform for me, and I was able to spin that into an internship and then a staff job at Raptivism, a New York hip-hop record label.”
The rise of mp3s and shift away from vinyl led to Raptivism’s demise.
“I was driving home from New York to Lynn, jobless, with no idea what I would do, when I got a call from Jim Ridley at Lynn Tech. (Ridley a lifelong teacher, coach and administrator in Lynn, is currently principal at St. Mary’s High.) He suggested I look into teaching at the school. At first, I said ‘no thanks,’ but after a couple of days I called him back and said I’d reconsidered. He was my mentor. He was a mentor for many young people in Lynn.” McDormand taught math and English as a second language at Tech, while coaching the girls hoop team. He now teaches math at Northeast Metro Tech in Wakefield.
“Hip-hop ignited a chemical reaction in me. I immediately knew it was the music for me. When I was 8 or 9 years old, I’d hear a hip-hop song on the radio in my room, Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest. I wanted to know all about every song. I really looked to dig deep into every song and video. The further I got away from the surface of (commercial) hip-hop, the deeper I wanted to look.”
And that’s led to where he is now, about to self-publish “For the Love: The Art of the Hip-Hop Video.”
He lives in Groveland with his supportive wife, Melissa, and their daughters, Clara, 3, and Sadie, 1.
A Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for editing, layout and shipping fees is underway. For details or to order the book, go to www.forthelove.info
Bill Brotherton can be reached at [email protected].
