SYRACUSE, N.Y. — CNY Central has explored the sound of Black Syracuse, from hip hop that gave a generation a voice to gospel and soul that built connection and community.
Now, in the final chapter of our Black History Month series, we look at how that same sound helped shape the woman now leading the city.
In January, Syracuse made history by swearing in Sharon Owens as its first Black mayor and second woman to hold the office. But long before city hall, campaigns, and public office, Owens says music was already shaping her.
“It’s interesting because even at the inauguration, most people came to me and said they felt something,” Owens said. “And that’s what music does. For me, starting it off with drums — the language of African culture — that meant something.”
READ MORE | Hip-hop in Syracuse: The builders, the voices and the community that carried it forward
The public inauguration at the Landmark Theatre opened with the African Drum Group, setting a tone rooted in heritage and tradition.
For Owens, that connection to music started in childhood.
“There was nothing you did that didn’t involve music,” she said. “Whether you were in church, at a family cookout, or somebody was playing music. Back then, it was a turntable or a radio. You had to wait for the radio to play your favorite song.”
She remembers Saturday mornings spent cleaning the house, a tradition in many Black households made easier with the sound of records playing in the background.
“You just turned on the record player and it seemed like it made everything go faster,” she said.
Owens proudly calls herself an “old school hip hop head,” pointing to pioneers like Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Run-DMC, and Big Daddy Kane.
“When I heard ‘The Message,’ I was like, ‘Whoa,’” she said. “All of those pioneers were trailblazing for a community that found this genre that nobody thought would last. And now you can’t turn on a commercial without hearing Snoop Dogg.”
READ MORE | Joyful noise: How gospel, soul, and funk helped shape Syracuse’s Black community
But for Owens, music is more than nostalgia. It’s generational.
She recalls listening to songs with her daughter, recognizing samples from classic R&B only for her own mother to trace those same sounds back to the blues.
“It’s repurposed and built upon for each generation,” Owens said. “As long as you give credit and residual to the originator, sampling is a compliment.”
Her playlist today reflects that evolution, gospel, 80s and 90s R&B, new jack swing, hip hop, and house music. She first discovered house music while attending Syracuse University as a track and field athlete — a time she says helped shape her sense of community and belonging.
Music, she says, has always followed her, even into public service.
“Anytime I’m anywhere, someone will say, ‘Is that the Deputy Mayor dancing out there?’” Owens said with a laugh. “Oh yes. I’ll be out on the dance floor.”
Owens smiled and sang a few lines of Mary J. Blige’s “Just Fine,” calling it her “Auntie anthem.”
“Music is a huge part of who I am,” she said.
Owens, who is also a pastor, says the gospel remains central in her life. She admits that at times, staff outside her office can hear music playing inside.
“If I need to feel encouraged, I may play some gospel,” she said.
For Owens, the importance of music goes beyond personal preference. It is historical.
“You have to know your history,” she said. “And that history includes the music that got us through slavery, through the Jim Crow era, through the Civil Rights Movement. Marching was accompanied by music and people singing, ‘We ain’t gonna let nobody turn us around.’”
That sound, she says, continues to carry forward.
The sound of Syracuse did not just entertain a community, it carried it, strengthened it, and shaped it.
And in this case, it helped shape its first Black mayor.
