With the campus’ Panther Pride Homecoming 2025 festivities only days away, the headliners for this year’s Alumni Homecoming Concert held a virtual press conference for journalists from the student media outlets that cover SUNY Old Westbury, its events, and activities.
The press conference featured rap and hip hop legends Kurtis Blow, a pioneering American rapper and producer known as the first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a major label; Chubb Rock, known for such hits as “Treat ‘Em Right” and “Just the Two of Us” and today a radio host in Atlanta, Georgia; and Darryl Barksdale, better known as DLB of the Fearless Four, which was the first crew to be signed to a major label, Elektra Records. Also participating was Cynthia Horner, the veteran journalist and entrepreneur who is currently publisher, chief executive officer and an owner of Right On! Media.
The participating students represented three campus media organizations: The Catalyst student newspaper, the Media Innovation Center, and OWWR – Old Westbury Web Radio.
The session was held in advance of the artists’ pending visit to campus as part of the “Fifth Element of Hip Hop Tour” to help celebrate the campus’ 60th anniversary. The tour is an outreach and awareness effort of The Hip Hop Alliance, a labor force organization that extends union resources to all creators in the Hip Hop and R&B genres. Kurtis Blow is a founder and current executive director of the alliance while Chubb Rock serves as a vice president.
“We understand that there is a generation gap, and how you bridge this generation gap is with the pillars of hip hop -- that’s peace, unity and love,” Kurtis Blow told the student journalists of the work being done to educate and assist contemporary artists through the knowledge and experience of those who founded the genre. “The Hip Hop Alliance is fighting for fair wages and fair royalties and strong health and retirement benefits. We are specializing in intellectual property to give the young people out there the knowledge to be successful in their journey.”
His work through The Hip Hop Alliance ties into a commitment to education that Blow has held throughout his life and career.
“You know, growing up in Harlem at eight, nine, 10, 13,14, 15, I would say to everyone that my dream was to go to college and everyone around me, from the neighborhood, they all supported that because everyone wants to support a young person who has dreams,” said Kurtis Blow, who attended CUNY’s City College of New York. “My advice is to make it happen, because it's very, very, very crucial to your future. With a college degree, you have an advantage. You have a calling card that you can present to everyone.”
Both Chubb Rock and Barksdale responded to questions about the changes in the hip hop community from the time they began their careers to today.
“Hip hop has gone into a cultural situation where it is worse,” said Rock. “There's five elements of hip hop. The DJ portion of it is gone. None of you could ever tell me who's little Wayne's DJ, or who's, you know, Tyler the Creator's DJ. So, they have taken that ingredient out. They've taken, the graffiti or even the artistic situation, out. They've taken even dancing out. So, I guess at this point, there's only one element, and that's rapping. I don't think it was ever meant to just be that one element of hip hop.”
A 1997 graduate of SUNY Old Westbury, Barksdale added: “Keep in mind, at this time, there was no social media. So, a lot of what we had to do to get our names out there relied on not just being there, because there had to be a there to get to right? But I say all of that to say we always had to make sure that we were where we needed to be. It was flyers, word of mouth relationships, and the bonds we had. Through our relationship with the Treacherous Three, that's how we ended up becoming signed for our first recording with Enjoy Records.”
Across the 90-minute session, the student journalists also engaged the legends on other topics, including advice that they might provide to young people entering their industries and on the lack of, and need for, greater representation of minorities in the media.
Scheduled for Saturday, October 4, 2025 at 6:30 p.m., the Alumni Homecoming Concert will feature an impressive array of timeless classics, many of which are reimagined versions of party anthems and nostalgic jams performed by Bl0w and other iconic artists, including Kool Moe Dee (SUNY Old Westbury Class of ‘87) and Kool Moe Dee And The Treacherous Three, Chubb Rock, Rock the Bells Radio personality MC Sha Rock, DLB and The Fearless Four and Sparky D.
On Friday, October 3 2025 at 3 p.m., many of the headliners will take part in a panel discussion following a screening of Blow’s film, "The History of Rap," which provides an insightful overview of the beginnings of Hip Hop beginnings and how the five elements came together.