Hip-Hop = Life

A Tribute to New York Undercover
written by JusHH

“… You never thought that Hip-Hop would take it this far.” Those words ring out even stronger today because when Hip-Hop first started people never gave it a chance. People felt that it would just be a passing fad. They were all wrong. Hip-Hop isn’t going anywhere; in fact, it’s even bigger than just the music. In the Hip-Hop = Life section, we’ll pay tribute so some of Hip-Hop’s greatest influences outside of the booth.

New York Undercover

I remember it like it was yesterday. I had seen the previews – a cop show that took place in New York City where the two main characters were Black and Puerto Rican. That alone was enough to get me to watch the show. So that Thursday night I sat in front of the television an in the introductory scene I heard… Mobb Deep? I couldn’t believe my ears. I checked, no, this isn’t a music video, no, this wasn’t a live concert. It was a regular crime drama that was playing a Hip-Hop classic in its opening scene. At that moment I was in love. Never before did I feel that a show was made for me, a kid from Queens who was a Hip-Hop head. Watching Detectives JC Williams and Eddie Torres walk with a bop, wearing a Phat Farm sweater with the baggy jeans and the unlaced Tims was an incredible experience. Seeing this on television gave an authentication to what me and my boys were doing, what we were wearing and how we spoke. You might have had “Hip-Hop” themed sitcoms before but never a 60 min drama – not like this. The Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) describes the show’s plot as follows:

Drugs, robbery, corruption, rape, murder. Cops versus criminals. The undercover war has started. Welcome to New York City.

No where in this description are the words Hip-Hop or ghetto mentioned. This was a show about cops and robbers and Hip-Hop was simply the backdrop, the perspective from which these characters viewed their world. The nature of the show also gave opportunities for aspiring actors from the Hip-Hop generation to get a break. Week after week I followed my two favorite detectives as they cracked down on crime all to a soundtrack that could be found in my discman. From time to time they wrote in live performances from some of my favorite artists and even gave cameos to other singers and rappers. It was great to see the “good guys”, who look like you, win the battle. Guys who you could relate to were not seen as thugs, but as heroes.

Since New York Undercover went off the air in 1998 after a four-year run, you saw many more shows come out that appealed to the Hip-Hop community. Nothing will give me the feeling that I had that day when I saw my first episode of New York Undercover and heard Havoc’s drums blast through my television. I can still hear the theme music in my head. Thankfully, the good folks at TV One brought it into syndication and I can watch them all over again.