While 40,000 or so Bon Jovi fans were desperately trying to pack themselves onto the Great Lawn Saturday, hip-hop heads (and their kids) made their way to Empire Fulton Ferry State Park for a more laid back free concert: the 4th annual Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival.

Beyond encouraging appreciation of classic and independent hip-hop, the event host organization, Brooklyn Bodega, tried to promote activism. The festival sought to demonstrate the connection many are trying to revitalize between involvement in hip-hop culture and political and social empowerment, with moderate success.

For the first time this year, Brooklyn Bodega hosted Brooklyn Hip-Hop Family Day preceding the concert, which combined attractions for kids with free medical screenings and information associated with childhood obesity (and eventually led to many dancing children, which exponentially increased the show’s cute factor).

The concert line-up didn’t do much for the message, though—most of the new artists didn’t have as much to say as the older emcees in the way of politics or social awareness.

Headliner KRS-One, aka ‘The Teacher,’ got the crowd hyped playing classic hits about racial injustice and offered up long vaguely conscious, but stunningly seamless freestyles. KRS-One has made many controversial comments in his day, and this day was no different. “Don’t just vote for who people tell you to vote for,” KRS-One said. While most of the older emcees told people how lucky they were to have the chance to vote for a black president, KRS-One offered up the theory that Obama is part of the same extended family as the other US presidents throughout history. Many concert-goers muttered “BS” under their breath at this, but there was also a contingent who yelled approval and thanks for finally telling the “truth.”

Racial diversity characterized the crowd as well as the politicians in attendance—both congrerssional candidate Kevin Powell, who is black, and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who is white, took the stage. Early in the show, organizer and host Wes Jackson told the crowd what a great guy Markowitz was for helping facilitate events like these. He urged the crowd to vote in local elections in order to get other similar politicians in office. Markowitz himself urged the crowd to vote for Obama and proclaimed his huge appreciation for hip-hop, which was “born in the Bronx, but refined here in Brooklyn.” Still, he didn’t have much hip-hop credibility to lose when he subsequently called KRS-One “KR-So One.” His warm reception indicated it was the effort that counted.

Powell, a veteran emcee who was more comfortable with the hip-hop crowd, handed out mix tapes with voter registration cards slipped into the covers. The gift symbolically married hip-hop cultural activism (urban distribution of mix tapes is considered an antidote to corporate music) with political activism. Powell didn’t have to do explicit self-promotion, since other emcees told the crowd that his being there indicated he was another of the kind of politicians they needed to elect to office.

Near the end of the show, satiated by a day of sun and hip-hop, I looked up at a beautiful summation of the event. There was the Brooklyn bridge, which emcees had used as a symbol of local pride; the waterfall pouring out from underneath it that everyone had been making backhanded compliments about all day (“It’s nice, but they could have put the money toward lowering the price of gas or rent.”); and the free concert staple: a Red Bull tent.

Source:
Gotham Gazette