The Hip Hop Caucus’ - Respect My Vote! Campaign, along with Radio One, Inc. and the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, registered more than 30,000 voters during its national “One Vote Day” voter registration drive on September 30th - according to news sources.
Thousands of citizens in sixteen cities across the country participated in events aimed at mass voter registration. Radio One stations broadcasted live from central locations in each of the participating cities urging unregistered voters to attend their local registration site to register onsite. Artists such as Nelly and Raheem DeVaughn helped draw large crowds to registration stations, allowing Hip Hop Caucus volunteers to register an average of 1,200 voters within each of the different markets. (more…)
Detroit, MI - According to news sources, Jay-Z will perform Saturday at Detroit’s Cobo Arena during a free rally and concert to promote voter registration. With just five days left to register voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is traveling to Michigan Thursday and sending in his wife and a top hip-hop artist to push the registration message.
The campaign also has created a video playing on the Obama Web site and YouTube that features Obama, running mate Joe Biden and a host of Michigan Democrats and popular entertainers who have hosted voter registration rallies and events in the state.”This is the biggest election of our lifetime,” Obama says in the video. “If you are already registered to vote, get your friends and family to register to vote. If you need more information about where to go, get on our Web site. … Remember, we need to do it by October 6th.” (more…)
There is no disputing that, in the past two decades, hip-hop music has received quite the bad rap. While critics wag their fingers at the promotion of violence and criminal activity often heard in lyrics, proponents of the genre claim the content is simply a reflection of news and reality for the disenfranchised.
Amid all the ruckus, it is easy to overlook the quieter voices in rap music; not every artist rhymes about guns and drugs. Having spent his early years in war-torn Somalia before seeking refuge in Canada, poet and hip-hop artist K’naan could easily take his place among today’s most favored gangster rappers–and probably with more credibility. However, that’s not his style. (more…)
Washington, D.C. - Although for many youths in the Benning Road area, hip-hop is the soundtrack of their lives, the Urban Arts Academy aims to transcend the familiar beats and rhymes and use hip-hop as a catalyst to change lives. “Hip-hop is your life,” Goldie Deane, the academy’s director, tells students. “It’s not the only thing in your life, but it’s a resource for many things in your life.”
Hip-hop as a musical genre is generally defined as vocalization over mixed music and beats. But hip-hop also describes a culture that branches out to include rapping, DJ skills, art, fashion and break dancing. It’s a collaborative culture that evolves as new generations add their interpretations to the lifestyle and the music, which is said to have had its roots in the Bronx. (more…)
The masses seem to be uniting for the most historical presidential election, ever, as the bi-partisan Hip-Hop Caucus is teaming with Radio One for the “Respect My Vote” Campaign, aimed at registering over 50,000 voters on September 30. According to news sources, the ambitious one day voter registration drive will be held in 15 big market cities throughout the country, including Atlanta, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Washington DC.
Radio One will utilize 52 stations across the nation to broadcast live from a central location in each city, allowing registrars to set up eligible voters. Radio One Corporate Director of Marketing Barry Macon explained his company is obligated to spearhead this movement due to their years of community activism. (more…)
Who knew that in ancient Rome, the gladiators were really b-boys? This little-known interpretation of history is brought to you by the likable new nonverbal, hip-hop dance comedy, “Break Out,” in which a magical book falls to Earth and contains stories about the alleged hip-hop evolution of mankind. The book finds its way into the hands of five male prisoners, already inclined to mock their captors. Emboldened by this enchanted text, they are soon tunneling their way out of jail.
Styling itself as an news-worthy extreme dance comedy, “Break Out” is a fond send-up of prison-escape film cliches, with a modern twist: These jailbirds, clad in outlandish striped prison togs, are experts at hip-hop, break dancing and beat-box (vocal percussion). The producers of “Jump” have focused the talents of their latest Korean cast — 10 of the best b-boys and b-girls in Asia — into a slapstick-laden, cops-and-robbers show, choreographed by the SevenSense Creative Team. (more…)
Afrika Bambaataa and other pioneers of hip hop are scheduled to travel to Ithaca, N.Y., to speak at a two-day conference celebrating Cornell University Library’s acquisition of Born in the Bronx: The Legacy and Evolution of Hip Hop, a collection that documents the early days of hip hop with recordings, photographs, posters and more.
According to news sources, events on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 are scheduled to include music, performances and lectures by several of hip hop’s founders, and roundtable discussions led by prominent speakers from the hip hop and academic communities. Cornell University Library will host the event, which will highlight the one-of-akind historical materials. (more…)
Story and interview contributed by Propaganda Anonymous:
I first came across the works of Michael Muhammad Knight in a library in East Atlanta Village during the winter of 2007. While living down the block from the library I would walk their and peruse the shelves and check my e-mail on the library’s Internet, as this was my computer access for the winter.
I had just finished reading Jeff Chang’s ‘Can’t stop, Won’t Stop,’ when I came across Michael’s most recent book ‘The Five Percenters.’ I was immediately taken in by not just the story of The Five Percenters, their founder Clarence 13X aka ALLAH, but also the precision and depth in this ethnographic study of a very important group of people to the philosophical foundations of Hip-Hop culture. (more…)
Boston, MA - An era. A dynasty. A news legendary hip-hop shop. Call it what you want. It’s over. After 20 years of owning Funky Fresh Records in Dudley Square, Rusti Pendleton - better known as Mr. Funky Fresh - will close the doors on his neighborhood landmark on Oct. 1. “I’ve been here seven days a week for 20 years,” Pendleton said from behind the counter. “I sold (hip-hop pioneers) Eric B. & Rakim out of this store. That’s how long I’ve been here.”
Pendleton got into the retail business in 1983 when he took a job at Funky Fresh’s predecessor, Spin City. At the time he was known as Rusti the Toejammer, a moniker he earned for his ability to spin records with his feet. “There comes a time when life kicks in and you have to go to work, especially since I had a daughter at the time,” Pendleton said. “I used to come to Spin City and buy records and the dude offered me a job. I’ve been here ever since.” (more…)
The Hip Hop Caucus’ - Respect My Vote! Campaign, along with Radio One, Inc. and the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, registered more than 30,000 voters during its national “One Vote Day” voter registration drive on September 30th - according to news sources.
Detroit, MI - According to news sources, Jay-Z will perform Saturday at Detroit’s Cobo Arena during a free rally and concert to promote voter registration. With just five days left to register voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is traveling to Michigan Thursday and sending in his wife and a top hip-hop artist to push the registration message.
There is no disputing that, in the past two decades, hip-hop music has received quite the bad rap. While critics wag their fingers at the promotion of violence and criminal activity often heard in lyrics, proponents of the genre claim the content is simply a reflection of news and reality for the disenfranchised.
Washington, D.C. - Although for many youths in the Benning Road area, hip-hop is the soundtrack of their lives, the Urban Arts Academy aims to transcend the familiar beats and rhymes and use hip-hop as a catalyst to change lives. “Hip-hop is your life,” Goldie Deane, the academy’s director, tells students. “It’s not the only thing in your life, but it’s a resource for many things in your life.”
Who knew that in ancient Rome, the gladiators were really b-boys? This little-known interpretation of history is brought to you by the likable new nonverbal, hip-hop dance comedy, “Break Out,” in which a magical book falls to Earth and contains stories about the alleged hip-hop evolution of mankind. The book finds its way into the hands of five male prisoners, already inclined to mock their captors. Emboldened by this enchanted text, they are soon tunneling their way out of jail.
Afrika Bambaataa and other pioneers of hip hop are scheduled to travel to Ithaca, N.Y., to speak at a two-day conference celebrating Cornell University Library’s acquisition of Born in the Bronx: The Legacy and Evolution of Hip Hop, a collection that documents the early days of hip hop with recordings, photographs, posters and more.
Boston, MA - An era. A dynasty. A news legendary hip-hop shop. Call it what you want. It’s over. After 20 years of owning Funky Fresh Records in Dudley Square, Rusti Pendleton - better known as Mr. Funky Fresh - will close the doors on his neighborhood landmark on Oct. 1. “I’ve been here seven days a week for 20 years,” Pendleton said from behind the counter. “I sold (hip-hop pioneers) Eric B. & Rakim out of this store. That’s how long I’ve been here.”
