Diaspora Restoration on the
By: Samantha Hollins
The African Diaspora has always been the backbone of music shifting; globally. If Sister Rosetta Tharpe is the mother of Rock-n-Roll, then Punk Rock is surely her kinfolk living in the belly of the cultural beats.
Samantha Hollins Photo Credit: Christie Love
The history of Punk Rock echoes a visual legacy drenched in White male dominance. From the UK to the USA, the indigenous influence has been vigorously washed away.
We can never undo the love affair that happened between Black American music heard on southern radio stations that made its way all the way to Jamaica in the 1950’s. Their love for Rhythm & Blues and Jazz, along with Cuban radio, helped to give birth to Ska. Once they wrapped their own off-beat vibration around that music, it launched into a new sound. Thereafter that sound evolved into Rock Steady, Reggae and beyond.
We can not undo the fact that Jamaican immigrants packed those new sounds with them as they journeyed to the UK. They carried loads of cultural blood, sweat and tears into a new life that inevitably transformed into early layers of Punk. That whole rude boy lifestyle can not be overlooked when it comes to the growing stages. Make it make sense that The Sound System, Millie Small, Strange Cole, Prince Buster is not on the tip of everyone’s tongues when it comes to the skeletons of Punk. Fortunately the late great British vocal siren Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex is tilting over into 2022 with a documentary called Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché. Her legacy is just screaming out loud to the masses and she started in 1976. Fortunately Don Letts left his finger prints on the culture via film, DJing and musicianship from the 1970’s-the present.
While Punk Rock was getting its life in London, sound waves in the USA where deep rooted in New York City. We know NYC natives The Ronettes had that whole rebel sanctuary flowing when they started Rockin’ out in the late 50’s. Knowing that The Clash and The Animals were inspired by Bo Diddley solidifies yet another blueprint. If you take it back further Bo’s influences included Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. Think about how those guitars translated. A lot of those bands inspired by Bo Diddley frequented the legendary CBGB’s in Manhattan’s East Village. As much as we hear The Stooges, The Ramones and the Sex Pistols we don’t hear the name Pure Hell enough. This Philadelphian badass crew is hailed as the first Black Punk band to tattoo its influence on the heart of national and international Punk culture in the 70’s. They were there with The New York Dolls and Sid Vicious, breaking and re-writing the rules on another level that inspired D.C. hardcore unit Bad Brains...who took Punk on a whole different humongous ride. Their impact hit hard amongst D.C. bands like Eastman. HR of Bad Brains is still out here in 2022, connecting the dots between Punk and Reggae so flawlessly. Chipper, of Pure Hell, is still out here spitting guitar venom on the streets of Philly. Chant their names!
Samantha Hollins Photo Credit: Geoff Hall
Rock City Detroit gave us a band called Death in the 1970’s. Those underground shows brought so much impact that has been recycled and exploited overtime. Ask Scotty Buttocks of Seattle Grunge founding band Bam Bam. His band’s distinctive Punk sound fronted by the late great Black Goddess named Tina Bell gave birth to a new musical sphere in 1983. Way before Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Hole, Tina Bell and Bam Bam unveiled the ground work of Grunge. This was such a prolific time in music because new wave came up as Punk’s cousin during this time frame with acts like Grace Jones and Prince. Sub-genres were like leaves falling from the same tree, growing into many lanes full blast with Blackness in the forefront.
Wherever oppression lingered Punk was there to give the finger. During the era of apartheid in South Africa, a Punk Rock band called National Wake made noise against the establishment in the late 1970’s through early 1980’s. In the late 1970’s Restos de Nada created a similar climate amidst political storms in Brazil.
In the mid 90’s No Doubt, Sublime, Reel Big Fish and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones were very popular but Los Angles Ska-Punk legends Fishbone had already started marking that territory when they started in 1979. Their sound became extremely contagious amidst that new Ska-Punk surge that inspired a plethora of bands who had heavy rotation on radio and video shows during that era.
Behind every great male dominated scene are women pushing the movement forward. Labels have been put on Black music since the beginning to keep the chain of product lucrative. But if you take away the labels you’ll see that Sister Rosetta Tharpe was straight up hardcore before it was a thing. Her aggressive guitar slinging, her massive vocal range, the changing of her hair color and don’t-care-attitude was definitely sprinkled into the Riot Grrrl realm greeted by Tina Turner, LaBelle and Betty Davis’s feminine power. Post-Punk band, The Zarkons featuring Punk songstress/songwriter/musician Freda Rente' (also known as Sista Sin) made history. Their music video played on MTV in the early 1980’s during a time when the presence of Black artists was a rarity. That kind of representation is surely a transference of empowerment. Her trailblazing spirit continues to innovate any art she creates, including her fierce offering Noise Fest in her hometown San Pedro, CA in the late 2000’s. In the late 90’s Sista Grrrl Riot (Honeychild Coleman, Maya “Mother Goddess”, Tamar Kali and Simi Stone). planted a new rawness into the NYC Punk atmosphere. Four melanated women with their warrior guitars, sounding off vocal Artivism shape shifted the way Sista Grrrls curate, protect and lead their spaces.
British singer/songwriter/DJ Skin of Skunk Anansie unleashed an unapologetic force of renegade energy in the mid 1990’s. Although her band was signed, it didn’t stop her truth from illuminating. Skin is still shattering the -isms today with her legacy etched in stone. Canadian singer/songwriter Fefe Dobson’s landslide into the mainstream in 2003 with her debut self titled album gave a 3D image to the struggle that was bubbling over underground. Her label wanted to mold her into an R&B/Pop artist, while she wanted to Rock. Because she stuck to her vision and went against the status quo, her contributions are golden.
When James Spooner’s documentary Afro Punk was released in 2003, it not only gave Black Punk artists and fans a mirror of self reflection, it also built a whole Punk/Rock community that ignited worldwide. That grew into “Liberation Sessions”, which was a screening with live bands. In 2005 Afro Punk Festival renewed a generation that finally felt heard. Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker (released in 2005) by Raymond Gayle was more of a microscope behind the industry of Punk and Rock life. It really broke down the dysfunctional relationships that the music business continues to perpetuate with Black alternative artist. With this prominent, informative kick of realism the DIY lifestyle became more needed than ever. That’s the motto Black American communities lived by anyway: “Mama always said if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself”.
Samantha Hollins Photo Credit: Samantha “GhettoSongBird” Hollins
That’s what Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother and her band, The Mighty Paradocs, did with their event called Rockers in Philadelphia (in the mid 2000’s). That’s what Donté Oxun and Monika Estrella Negra did with their Black and Brown Punk Show Collective; curated in Chicago (starting in 2010). That’s how my The Culture Rock Griot work (that started as Wingdom Fest in 2005) developed. That’s what’s happening now with Von Phoenix, Infinite, Arizona and the ever expanding Punk Black brand out of Atlanta, GA, Decolonise Fest in London, Decolonoize Fest in Berlin and so many more are bringing this Punk generation full circle with our ancestors and elders who fearlessly paved the way.
The African Diaspora has always gotten restoration on the Punk Floor. It is an ultimate release of oppression. The Mohawk, body piercing, tattoos, dance, hair coloring and so much more breathes ancient indigenous culture across the diaspora. It is a birth-right for bands to identify with the pure essence of Punk. Throughout the 2000’s bands like Follow For Now, Roulette, Rebelmatic, Kimya Dawson Crystal Axis, Black Pantera, Maafa, Big Joanie, TCIYF, The OBGMS, The 1865, Punho De Mahin, The Txlips, Conkrete God, Howling Star, Felice Rosser, Terror Fúnebre, Negro Terror, Odd Rocker. F U Pay Us, Powerslide, The Nova Twins, Youth Man, The Muslims, The Black Tones, D’mitra of Ex’s with Benefits Sunny War, Om Johari and so many more are cutting edges with a sharp grasp on how to utilize Punk as a tool to shift lively vibrations. You don’t have to have the yearn to feel seen when you’re visible in the eyes of a ritual that is your own. This is not an exclusive timeline of Black folks in Punk because there are so many more pioneers, legends and contributors. This is merely an observation, unraveling spaces in time that fuses the African Diaspora Punk scene as a body work to be exceedingly proud of.
Asé
Samantha Hollins
The Culture Rock Griot
