Adventures in the Counterculture: From Hip Hop to High Times [Paperback]

Steven Hager (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2002 | ISBN-10: 1893010147 | ISBN-13: 978-1893010147

This collection of eight articles by journalist Steven Hager covers the JFK assassination, the East Village art scene, the Rainbow Family, the Waco massacre, the Cannabis Cup awards in Amsterdam, out-of-control police, counterculture spirituality, and includes his groundbreaking essay on rap music and breakdancing in which he coined the term “hip hop.”

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: High Times Books (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893010147
• ISBN-13: 978-1893010147
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,098,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steven Hager briefly visited Haight-Ashbury in 1968, and the following year he attended the first Woodstock festival. He obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater (Playwriting), and a Masters of Science in Journalism, both from the University of Illinois.

After graduation, Hager moved to New York City, worked for a number of magazines before becoming a reporter for the New York Daily News. During this time, he began researching the hip hop movement of the South Bronx. His first article on the subculture was published on the cover of the Village Voice and was the first time the words "hip hop" appeared in print.[1] Hager based his article on interviews with Afrika Bambaataa, founder of the Zulu Nation, and one of the three original hip hop DJs (the others being Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash). Hager sold his original story Beat Street to Harry Belafonte, and the film with the same name was distributed by Orion Pictures. In 1984, St. Martins' Press released his book, Hip Hop, the first history of rap music, break dancing and graffiti art.[2] He followed that book with "Art After Midnight," an examination of the New York club scene and its influence on artists, primarily Jean Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf.[3] (The entire text of Art After Midnight (including the much-quoted Basquiat interview) was reprinted in The Octopus Conspiracy and Other Vignettes of the Counterculture: From Hippies to High Times to Hip-Hop and Beyond as well as Adventures in the Counterculture[4].)

Career with High Times

In 1988, Hager was hired as editor of High Times magazine. He is most famous for removing hard drugs (e.g., cocaine and heroin) from the magazine, and concentrating on advocating personal cultivation of cannabis. Hager also created the Cannabis Cup, a cannabis awards ceremony held every Thanksgiving in Amsterdam, and The Freedom Fighters, the first hemp legalization group. The High Times Freedom Fighters were famous for dressing up in Colonial outifts and organizing hemp rallies across America. One rally, The Boston Freedom Rally, quickly became the largest political event in the country, drawing an audience of over 100,000 to the Boston Common. Hager created a garage-rock revival band called the Soul Assassins. The band played many of the rallies. Their biggest show was opening for the Butthole Surfers in front of 50,000 people in Washington, DC. During this time, Hager asked his friend from high school, Jim Wilson, to become a columnist for the magazine. Wilson became known as Chef Ra and contributed a cooking-with-pot article in every magazine for 15 years. Chef Ra was also a member of the High Times Freedom Fighters and became the featured speaker at many of the rallies.

In the 1990s, Hager turned the membership list of the Freedom Fighters over to NORML, and began concentrating on creating events that advocated the environmental benefits of hemp while also demonstrating the spiritual uses of cannabis. The World Hemp Expo Extravaganja, or Whee! Festivals, were held in Oregon, Washington, Michigan, New York, and Ohio. Unfortunately, most of the promoters who held Whee! festivals found themselves subject to intense law enforcement efforts to shut down their venues. The primary focus of Whee! was a silent, Sunday, sunset meditation for peace in the drug war.

In 1996, Hager learned to shoot and edit video. He started documenting all research on videotape. Over the past 15 years he has produced several feature documentaries and assembled one of the world's largest archives of cannabis-related video. Documentaries Hager has produced include: "Let Freedom Ring," "Secrets of the Dutch Grow Masters," "The Cannabis Cup," "Saint Stephen," and "The 20th Cannabis Cup." In 2002 he directed the video shoot that was later released as Live in Amsterdam (Fishbone album). In 2004, he wrote most of the narration for a/k/a Tommy Chong and also appears in the film.

In 1997, Hager created the Counterculture Hall of Fame as part of the ceremonies at the Cannabis Cup. The first inductee was Bob Marley. In 2009, Thomas King Forcade, founder of High Times will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Hager's most recent book, The Octopus Conspiracy and Other Vignettes of the Counterculture: From Hippies to High Times to Hip-Hop and Beyond, was published by Trine Day. The book is a collection of magazine articles and previous books by Hager, and the chapter "Nomenclature of an Octopus Cabal" theorizes that a network of secret societies manufactures war for profit and social control. In 2007, he produced a reality television show based around his job at High Times magazine. His longterm project is called the Peace Trail Project, which hopes to establish a permanent migratory tribe of all cultures that moves south in the Winter and north in the Summer.

Hager also regularly appears on college campuses, sometimes solo, but usually as part of a debate on the legalization of cannabis, alongside former New York City D.E.A. chief Robert Stutman. The event, known as "Heads versus Feds," began in 2001 and has visited more than 200 colleges in eight years, regularly drawing standing-room crowds. The debate is booked by Wolfman Productions in Connecticut.

References

1. ^ Hip-Hop Journalists Host Round Table Panel Discussion by Clover Hope -- Raquel Cepeda, former editor-in-chief of Russell Simmon's One World magazine and editor of the book And It Don't Stop: The Best Hip-Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years, mentioned a piece by writer Steven Hager called "Afrika Bambaataa's Hip-Hop," as the first time the term "Hip-Hop" was coined in an article. The article is reprinted in her book.
2. ^ Hager, Steven. Hip Hop: The Illustrated History of Break Dancing, Rap Music, and Graffiti. St Martin's Press, 1984 (out of print).
3. ^ Hager, Steven. Art After Midnight: The East Village Scene. St. Martin's Press, 1986 (out of print).
4. ^ Hager, Steven. Adventures in the Counterculture: From Hip Hop to High Times. High Times Books, 2002.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly informative read for those who care about the culture, October 14, 2002

By 

Andre Torres (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adventures in the Counterculture: From Hip Hop to High Times (Paperback)

I didn't realized just how much Hager's writing and political convictions have been an inspiration to me throughout the years until seeing his work compiled in Adventures. From obsessing over Art after Midnight in my early college years to using High Times for cultivation tips in my later years, his writing has hade a major impact on my life. The East Village scene he documented in the early 80s was my inspiration for becoming an artist and moving to New York in 1995. It was refreshing to read his piece on the Rainbows, having attended a Gathering at the Ocala National Forest in Florida, and found it to be an enlightening experience. But the only press I ever read of the movement has been condescending. Steven Hager has been on the forefront of documenting the counterculture for over three decades, and for those who have been intimately involved in the culture, his work stands as some of the earliest and best of our time. His book on hip hop remains a staple to any hip hop archivist today. And for the record, he's never claimed to invent "hip hop," but his essay was the first to use the term in print journalism. Overall a very informative read for those who really care about the counter culture.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars not so adventurous, October 6, 2002

By 

alan weiss (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adventures in the Counterculture: From Hip Hop to High Times (Paperback)

This is pretty ponderous stuff.. definitely not the Electric Acid Kool Aid Test. The Author's claim to having invented hip hop should be filed next to Al Gore's claim to have invented the internet. The rest of the book is about 60s hippie culture in the 80s, conspiracies, and pot. It's a lot of the same stuff High Times writes about, so if you read High Times, you've heard this stuff before. It doesn't cover any of the real 80s counter culture like skateboarding and alternative rock. For a real 80s counterculture book check out Dogtown or Get in the Van.. This is for hippies, and even so, it's not very well done.

5.0 out of 5 stars Dyno=mite, November 20, 2002

By 

Kris Millegan (Eugene, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adventures in the Counterculture: From Hip Hop to High Times (Paperback)

This book covers a breadth of vital experiences among the counter-culture and is must reading for those that care about the true history of our age. Steve gets to the crux of many places and times where the subtle actions of a few individuals spreads out to the real world of culture, human interactions and become forces upon the world stage by sheer beneficence. An enduring work covering what the mainstream either ignores or gives skimpy, stereotyped coverage.