CLEVELAND — It’s tough to deny the huge influence of hip-hop on American culture. It’s the most dominant music genre in the country, according to Billboard, now 50 years after bursting onto the scene.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is honoring that sound and spirit with a new exhibit on Thursday, but a Radio One Cleveland DJ embraces the beats in every aspect of his life.
DJ Ryan Wolf is a fixture on Z107.9, spending more than a decade on the radio. The Cleveland native’s stage name “Wolf” has a meaning.
“Walk on legit faith,” he said. “Because that’s basically what my life’s been on.”
Born Ryan Gullatt, he said some help from above pointed him down this career path.
“Every other door was closed, and this door opened and it was, like, smooth,” he said.
Looking back, he realized there were two constants in his life: faith and music.
“My family was very religious but also very spiritual,” Gullatt said. “‘Cause it’s two different things. But they were both. But, my mom, really. So, I was in church every day.”
At about a dozen years his senior, Gullatt’s older brother introduced him to the bass-bumping sounds of hip-hop.
“He’s my super hero at this point,” he said, while remembering the first time he heard the sounds in his brother’s Cadillac. “And I’m feeling the music, so everything he’s putting in is like, ‘What is this?’ And I wanted to hear more, so I always wanted to be with my brother.”
When he’s not playing the hits on the radio, Gullatt’s a DJ for live gigs, like for the Cleveland Browns.
The style is called “Chopped and Screwed” and slowing down songs stuck with him, he said.
“This is what made me wanna start,” he said while demonstrating the technique.
He enjoys bringing people together through a shared love of music and blending unexpected sounds.
“It’s a great thing God created, and it’s made to make you feel good,” he said.
Gullatt said he understands the power of music and the artist Cam’ron was his first influence.
“It was just anything about him,” he said. “The way he dressed, the way he rapped, his cadence, what he was saying. It was like, it was just dope. It was real dope.”
He said hip-hop performers often get a bad rap for writing about what they know and expressing their experiences through their songs.
“There’s a lot of crazy stuff in rock and roll, like crazy if you listen to the lyrics,” he said. “But it’s something deeper than that systematically that we’re going to get looked at as African Americans a little differently.”
As he looks forward to the next 50 years of hip hop and the genre’s continued evolution. Gullatt is passing the vibe on to his four kids ranging in age from 1 to 17.
“It’s not like it has to be a certain beat, it’s just a feeling,” he said.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is celebrating the opening of the 50 years of hip hop exhibit called “Holla If Ya Hear Me” with a public dedication planned at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the museum. Artists like Flavor Flat and Chuck D are scheduled to join the festivities.
