I Collaborated With the First African Artists to Ever Crack the American Hip Hop Industry

Most people reading this have never heard of Zimbabwe Legit. And that is genuinely one of the greatest injustices in hip hop history. Because what Akim and Dumi Right pulled off in the early 1990s was nothing short of extraordinary — and the fact that their story isn't in every hip hop history book tells you everything about which stories this industry decided to keep and which ones it let slip away.

Here are the facts. Two brothers, born in Zimbabwe, showed up in America and did something that had never been done before: they cracked the American hip hop industry as African artists. Not as novelty. Not as a gimmick. As genuine MCs with something real to say and the skill to say it. Hollywood Records signed them in 1991 — making them the first African act to secure a major American hip hop deal. In the same year that Ice Cube dropped Death Certificate and A Tribe Called Quest released The Low End Theory, Zimbabwe Legit was making history nobody was paying enough attention to document.

"Hip hop was always a global language — it just took the industry a while to admit it. Zimbabwe Legit knew that before almost anyone else. They weren't following the culture. They were extending it."

Fast forward to 2007. Zimbabwe Legit released House of Stone — a powerful, deeply considered album that brought their full story into focus. They brought in Vast Aire of Cannibal Ox, one of the most respected underground voices in hip hop. And they brought in the Chubbster. On the track "Wake Up," three very different journeys through hip hop — underground New York, African diaspora, and a Brooklyn legend in his third decade — came together around a message that was as relevant in 2007 as it is today.

What strikes me most looking back is what that collaboration represented. A kid from Brooklyn who'd started his career in 1988. Two brothers from Zimbabwe who'd crossed an ocean to prove that hip hop belonged to the whole African diaspora, not just one zip code. And the music that connected us wasn't nostalgia — it was urgency. "Wake Up" said something. It meant something. That's all that has ever mattered to me about any record I've ever been on.

Hip hop was born in the Bronx. But it was always bigger than America. Zimbabwe Legit proved that in 1991. And I'm proud to have been in the room with them sixteen years later, still making the argument together.

— Chubb Rock  |  The Chubbster