Previous events for the Bronx legend have featured special appearances from artists and DJs, including 2021's celebration which included a selection of acclaimed DJs, including DJ Chuck Chillout and DJ Breakout.
"We who started the culture started out as B-girls and B-boys, meaning that we listened to the breakbeats of DJs like Kool Herc who would play certain parts of the breakbeats," Sha-Rock said in an interview for the Hulu special, The Real Queens of Hip-Hop: The Women Who Changed the Game. "We used the conditions that was around us to help us get away from all the negativity and everything that was going on in the Bronx at that time and created the culture of Hip-Hop."
Last year, Sha-Rock joined Bowie State University’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts as the Resident MC Hip Hop Historian and adjunct professor, teaching courses and working with students pursuing a minor degree in Hip Hop Studies and Visual Culture. “It is critical that students understand the history of Hip Hop and how it became a music genre," she told ROCK THE BELLS. "It has played a central role in the evolution of the music industry and popular culture with commercials, movies, plays, books, fashion and other facets of everyday life impacted by Hip Hop. My goal is to help the students at the university know what Hip Hop is today, what it was and what it will be.”
As for Sha-Rock Day, it will take place in the Bronx on June 3, and will also commemorate Hip-Hop's 50th birthday. In the meantime, you can catch her weekly on her radio show with Grandmaster Caz, That's the Joint, on ROCK THE BELLS radio.
