Somebody sent this over to me today knowing that I’m a big Luckyiam fan, but I posted it because I’m feeling the entire track. Mils and Eekwol are siblings representing Canada’s Mils Productions. From what I could gather, The Gauntlet was a track from the duo’s ‘07 album “The List,” and originally featured Stic.Man of Dead Prez. This new version features Luckyiam of the Living Legends crew.

Big ups to Jon at Vivid Imagery for sending this over. Kasha is a UK emcee and Black Rhyme is a track from his album “The Oracle.”

A little bit of that international shit for ya. The Afeeliated is a Norwegian hip-hop group. From their new album “Saving the City Vol 2.”

The True School Park Jam Series is becoming one of my favorite video documentaries around. This is a trailer for the upcoming episode which will feature Afrika Bambaataa, Kool DJ Red Alert, and The Original Jazzy Jay reuniting on the wheels of steel for the first time in over 25 years. If you like this, check out the last episode featuring Biz Markie and Kid Capri.

Big ups to Mark Carranceja and Noisemaker Media for sending this video over. This is their most recent episode of The True School Park Jam Series featuring Biz Markie and Kid Capri.

One of the things I love about New York City’s underground hip-hop scene is that it extends beyond music and into community. In fact, most of the local hip-hop artists I know are teachers, educators, mentors or involved in the community in some form or fashion. This is best illustrated through Urban Art Beat, a music and art based workshop directed at under-served youth in NYC. Above is a video about Urban Art Beat.

Super big ups for the homie BeatRoot for sending this over. I ain’t gonna lie though, when I saw that dude had just sent me a mixtape from some French hip-hop artists, I chuckled a little. But once I actually listened to the album, I realized that these cats got skillz. Fantastic Planet is a French hip-hop group who apparently teamed up with some U.S. emcees and turntablists to create this mixtape. Click below to download Fantastic Planet’s “Fantastic JJ Project” mixtape for FREE:

Download

Distrakt is one of my favorite underground emcees. Recently, he’s been doing a lot of work with Sedgwick and Cedar. This video walks you through his newest creation, a FREE downloadable interactive study of the history of hip-hop. Dope and educational.

With President Obama pushing to create millions of new “green-collar” jobs, being eco-conscious might not just be a good idea, it may become a lucrative one as well. But buying organic, starting your own garden and living the sustainable life can be expensive, and for many people, it might feel as though the green movement is a nice but unavailable crusade that has all but passed them by.

“While certain parts of the Bay Area are very eco-conscious, for people in some parts of the city, like Bayview-Hunters Point, they just don’t have access to some of the resources, the technology or information that would allow them to live in an ecologically conscious, self-sustaining way,” says Ambessa Cantave, who with wife Zakiya Harris founded Grind for the Green in 2007, an organization dedicated to bringing ideas on how young people can shape a green future for themselves and practical resources for sustainable living to underserved communities.

This Saturday, Grind for the Green kicks off the SF Youth Commission’s 2009 Youth Fest with a special Eco-Music Conference for young people 14-24 years old, at which Cantave and Harris hope to use the socially conscious messages of hip-hop as a way of introducing young people to the idea of living green. For the daylong event, San Francisco State’s downtown campus, located in the Westfield mall, will become what Cantave calls a mini green sphere of information, exhibits and walk-through activities. There will be all-organic food – served in compostable packaging – that you can munch on while taking in live hip-hop performances. Producer and San Francisco State University faculty Gian Fiero will share his insights about breaking into the music industry, but true hip-hop devotees will want to hear the keynote speech from M-1 – of the intense and socially conscious underground hip-hop group Dead Prez – all on sound systems and audio gear powered in real time by volunteers pedaling away on generators on loan from Rock the Bike.

“We want to bring youth into the epicenter of the sustainability movement,” says Cantave. “Hopefully this event will empower them by giving them the tools, giving them the information they need but don’t have widespread access to. We want them to understand why sustainability is important to their lives.”

After the conference, head on down to the Civic Center Plaza, where Youth Fest 2009 continues from noon to 6 p.m. with performances featuring homegrown hip-hop talents from Oakland’s Latino quartet Brwn Bflo to smooth and soulful San Francisco artist Melina Jones. And if you can’t make the conference, Grind for the Green will be back later this summer with a beat battle on Aug. 15 at Zeum and a free outdoor, solar-powered concert at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival on Aug. 30 at noon.

Source:
The San Francisco Chronicle

The Maqusi Towers in Gaza City look a bit like US housing projects. The neighborhood consists of several tall apartment buildings grouped together in the northern part of town. It is also ground zero for Gaza’s growing Hip-Hop community. On a recent evening in one small but well-decorated apartment, a dozen rappers and their friends and families relaxed, danced, smoked flavored tobacco, and rapped the lyrics to some of their songs.

The occasion was a post-show celebration of the taping of Hip Hop Kom, an American Idol-type talent competition for Palestinian rappers. Fifteen acts from across Palestine performed on Thursday night, and the show was broadcast simultaneously in Gaza City and the West Bank city of Ramallah. Through the use of video conferencing and projection, each city could see and hear the performances happening in the other. Five groups from Gaza participated, and Gazawians came in first, third, and fourth place.

The Gaza City show was held in a small theatre in the Palestine Red Crescent building. Although only publicized by word of mouth, nearly 200 young people filled the theatre, loudly cheering for the rappers and breakdance crew who took the stage.

One of the organizers of the contest, a charismatic literature major named Ayman Meghames, is a minor celebrity here. Part of Gaza’s first Hip-Hop group — named PR: Palestinian Rapperz — Ayman dedicates his time to supporting and publicizing Gaza’s young music scene.

Armed with a ready smile, Ayman was seemingly everywhere at once that night. He was on stage introducing the acts, helping with technical difficulties, greeting friends, and coordinating with the West Bank organizers.

For Ayman, making music is a form of resistance to war and occupation, and also a tool to communicate the reality of life in Palestine. “Most of our lyrics are about the occupation,” he tells me. “Lately we’ve also started singing about the conflict between Hamas and Fatah. Any problem, it needs to be written about.” Rapper Chuck D, from the group Public Enemy, once called rap music the CNN for Black America. For Ayman and his friends, music is their weapon to break media silence. “Most of the world believes we are the terrorists,” he says. “And the media is closed to us, so we get our message out through Hip-Hop.”

One of the first acts to take the stage was a duo called Black Unit Band. Mohammed Wafy, one of the two singers, displays the innocent charm of a teen pop star as he jumps from the stage and into the audience. Tall and skinny with a shock of black hair, Mohammed is 18 and looks younger. Khaled Harara, the other singer (and Mohammed’s next door neighbor) is a few years older and several pounds heavier, but no less energetic on stage.

As the evening progressed, the energy in the room continued to rise. The next act featured six members from two combined groups (DA MCs, and RG, for Revolutionary Guys) now collectively called DARG Team. The crowd was up on their feet, many of them singing along as the performers displayed a range of lyrical stylings.

In Mohammed Wafy’s apartment, the perfomers waited anxiously for the results of the contest. The call came in on Ayman’s cel phone. Putting it on speaker, everyone listened as the results were announced: DARG team had come in first place, and Black Unit had placed third. There were no hurt feelings apparent for those that didn’t win — for these young performers, every victory is a shared victory. DARG members will now go on to Denmark to produce an album (if they can get out of Gaza).

Fadi Bakhet, a studious and slightly preppy looking Afro-Palestinian in wire-rimmed glasses, is DARG’s manager, and also the brother of one of the members. As the night continued, the gathering moved to his apartment. They celebrated the successful show, which also fell on the last day of exams for many students, and the laughing and conversation continued late into the night. The next day was hot and sunny, and thousands of Gazawians gathered on the beach to swim and relax by the Mediterranean.

These stories may seem incongruent with much of the international reporting about Gaza and the Hamas government. But it is exactly for this reason that they should be told.

If you follow the reporting on Palestine in the US media, you may imagine a fundamentalist state. Hamas-stan, as at least one Israeli commentator has called it. You may imagine a nation of terrorists, where women are oppressed and men launch rockets. But perhaps when we learn that Palestinian families swim on Friday afternoons, that they study literature in the day and rap about imprisoned friends at night, we can rethink the US’ unquestioning support for Israeli aggression against this almost entirely defenseless population.

Yesterday, I visited a journalism class at the Islamic University, taught by Rami Almeghari. The students had many questions, but one young woman’s words in particular stayed with me. “What can we do to reach people in America and tell them how things really are here,” she asked. “How can we get them to listen, and to see?”

Source:
Article written by Jordan Flaherty for Dissident Voice