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…)

San Diego, CA - Stop the Traffick Jam, a Hip Hop concert to protest sex trafficking, will be presented from 7 p.m. to midnight Sept. 27 in the Price Center East Ballroom at the University of California, San Diego. Admission is $10 in advance and $12 at the door. The goal of the benefit concert is to raise awareness about the dangers of sex trafficking, pimping and prostitution through the use of hip hop. Co-sponsors of the concert are the UC San Diego Women’s Center and GABNet San Diego.

According to news sources, proceeds will benefit the Purple Rose Campaign against the sex trafficking of Filipina women and children, an international project of GABRIELA Network ( GABNet ), a U.S.-Philippines women’s solidarity organization. (more…)

Hip hop has entered the housing crisis. In a news press conference held today in New York, members of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN), including hip-hop pioneer and network cofounder Russell Simmons, announced a joint initiative called “Get Your House Right!” to provide solutions to the mortgage and foreclosure crisis for young Americans. Russell announced the initiative with HSAN Cofounder, President and CEO Dr. Benjamin Chavis and Valeisha Butterfield, HSAN executive director.

“Get Your House Right!” is a homeownership tour that kicks off in New York City and is supported by corporate sponsor Genworth Financial. It works with professionals from the financial, mortgage and homeownership arena to educate Blacks and Latinos on the long-term benefits of homeownership in America. (more…)

East Lansing, MI - Who says science doesn’t turn people on? Kate McAlpine is a rising star on YouTube for her rap performance - about high-energy particle physics. Her performance has drawn a half-million views so far on YouTube.

The 23-year-old Michigan State University graduate and science writer raps about news of the Large Hadron Collider, the groundbreaking particle accelerator that has been built in a 27.35km circular tunnel at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. McAlpine raps that when the collider goes into operation on Sept. 10, “the things that it discovers will rock you in the head.” (more…)

Killeen, TX - On his next mission, he won’t be using his strength to leap over buildings in one single bound and he can’t fly, so forget about traversing the globe in mere seconds. But Daniel Helvetius, an amiable third-grade teacher at Saegert Elementary School, is transforming into his alter ego – DJ Vicious – to impact his community and change the world, one block party at a time.

DJ Vicious is spinning his ones and twos to bring people together, tear down stereotypes with clean lyrics and to have a good time in the process. According to news sources, Helvetius is hosting a Back-to-School block party Aug. 23 at Harker Heights’ Carl Levin Park from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. (more…)

Salisbury, NC - Hundreds of children have bags full of school supplies courtesy of a local hip hop group. Untouched Entertainment put a notice in the local Post news offering free school supplies Thursday at sites in East Spencer and Salisbury. “People are having hard times,” said Kenney Coney, one of the five members of Untouched. “We wanted to help out.”

The turnout was nearly overwhelming. More than 300 children turned out at the Kujimani After School Program at 207 S. Long St. “We ran out of everything,” Coney said. No problem. The band members, including Coney, Domonek Wilder, Steve Frost, Terrence Gooden and Lamont Tucker, made a quick trip to Wal-Mart and reloaded. (more…)

A new generation of song producers is poised to reignite the city’s musical legacy — not in a studio booth, but at the YouthVille Detroit community center. About 30 youngsters in a weekly music production class learned firsthand tricks Wednesday from nationally recognized Seattle-based producers Vitamin D and Jake One.

The two producers, who have worked with hip-hop group De La Soul, rapper 50 Cent and singer Mary J. Blige, played some of their beats and answered questions about breaking into the beat-making side of the music industry. The sponsor, Red Bull Big Tune, has taken the program several cities across the country, from Las Vegas to Philadelphia. (more…)

Goldsboro, NC - A hip-hop artist and motivational speaker told more than 70 children at the Boys & Girls Club this past week that they have great mental powers. And to capitalize on them, they just need to stop selling themselves short. “If you do one to two hours of homework per day, you are guaranteed to be a B-student,” said the artist known as Nubian Scholar, HIP HOP Guru of Self-help & Personal Development. “There’s far more good than bad in the world. If it was not true, we would all be killing each other right now,” he said.

Nubian Scholar came to the Paylee Unit of the Boys & Girls Club from Washington, D.C. at the request of Eastpointe’s System of Care Director Phyllis Greene. She found out about him when he did a presentation in Rocky Mount. She looked him up on the Internet and was impressed with his message. She invited about 30 children from Wayne and surrounding counties to join the Boys & Girls Club members as they gathered in the Learning Center to hear Nubian Scholar. (more…)

A comic book requires at least two things, a good guy and a villain, but it also helps if there is a message to go along with the story. This is the case for the new locally released comic book series, “The Legion of Health.”

The Legion consists of seven core characters who represent different aspects of healthy living. The characters range from Brainiac, who represents research, to Suga Free, who represents nutrition. There is even a character representing the series creator, Dr. Rani Whitfield, also known as the Hip Hop Doc. However, his character isn’t even his favorite from the series. (more…)

Rocky Mount, NC - Local youth saw a different side of hip-hop news Saturday, learning “hot tracks” to carry them through life. Motivational hip-hop speaker Nubian Scholar brought his Cit2bit methodology to Rocky Mount to stress the positive paths youth should take in life. Scholar shared personal stories about growing up in a household where he once counted 66 mice run across the floor in one day. The embarrassment of purchasing groceries with food stamps and having a sister addicted to crack.

The D.C. native told the crowd of about 40 youth and parents that hip-hop helped him rise above meager beginnings and helped him earn a degree from Howard University. “I understand there’s a will, there’s a way,” Scholar said. “I realize that if you use the power, the technique, the talent, the ability in hip-hop, you can transform your life and dictate where you go.” (more…)