VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Rap Icon Doug E. Fresh Reveals What He Thinks Of Hip Hop Today At Justice For Women NYC Event

Rap icon Doug E. Fresh appeared on stage for a performance at the Justice For Women and Every Girl’s City Initiative gala event held at NeueHaus in New York City on Friday during the United Nations General Assembly meeting.

The initiative, co-founded by the president of Cinémoi USA Daphna Edwards Ziman earlier this year, seeks to eliminate emotional, economic and physical violence against women globally.

Fresh was joined on stage by iconic singer Chaka Khan to perform, raise money and support the work Justice for Women is doing.

uInterview founder Erik Meers caught up with Doug E. Fresh at the event for a conversation on the state of rap today.  

“In hip-hop now, I’m turned on by people being creative and taking a chance to do something that nobody’s ever done, or to do something in a different twist,” Fresh revealed. “There ain’t too many of them out there. They are creative on one plane, but to create something from nothing is a different level of creation. They’re rhyming because somebody thought about rhyming. Beat box came from nothing, but circumstance. Sometimes you just have to trust yourself, trust the people in your corner, and the creation will turn into something else. There are a lot of great artists out there, but to create on the level of first generation is a different level of creation.”

He also spoke to his influence over the genre.

“I learned from the first generation of hip-hop,” Fresh said. “I’m the first child of the first generation and the creator of the last element of hip-hop. You have the DJ, you have the MC, you have the graffiti artisit and you have the dancers and the final element, the beat box, I created … Neccessity is the mother of invention.”

Doug E. Fresh is currently touring and has a greatest hits album, book and documentary on the horizon.

You can learn more about Justice For Women here.