MANSFIELD, OH – Casey Barwick wants to offer something positive for Mansfield. In that vein, he’s planned a benefit hip-hop concert for the Mansfield Domestic Violence Shelter from 8 p.m. to midnight Saturday at CD Jungle.

“I want to give back in any way I can. It’s nice to give back to the less fortunate,” said Barwick, who also goes by the hip-hop alias “Confidence.” Barwick, 23, defines himself as an inspirational rapper, who tells stories about everyday life. “I don’t talk about the negative things,” he said. (more…)

St. Louis rapper Chingy is giving back to his St. Louis community through his non-profit organization Chingy for Change. The Chingy for Change Foundation supports children that are less fortunate, through scholarships, mentoring programs and other communal activities.

“On Thanksgiving and Christmas we go out and give turkeys and food to the families that can’t afford to have nice Thanksgiving dinners, and on Christmas we go around and give a certain amount of toys to the less fortunate families that probably wont be able to shop and afford to trade gifts,” Chingy told AllHipHop.com. (more…)

He was doing what he loved most in a neighborhood recording studio any other hip-hop star would have abandoned long ago – but Jam Master Jay always did his own thing.

And that October night in 2002, the pioneering Run DMC deejay, whose real name was Jason Mizell, was doing what he did best – mixing beats – when he was shot in the back of the head in a Queens studio full of people. The execution-style murder of the hip-hop legend remains one of the most notable of the city’s unsolved homicides.  (more…)

Sheboygan, WI – C.J. Dimoff really enjoys listening to his Figureheads hip-hop CD. So when he found out they were performing at James Madison Elementary School on Wednesday, where C.J.’s a fifth-grader, he was really excited.

“They tell kids, if you hear other people like talking mean to other kids, go up there and stand up for them and say ‘Knock that off. It’s not right to treat other kids that way,’” said C.J., 10. “If you treat (people) that way, then they will do the same to you.”

Five years ago, Figureheads — Jeremy Bryan, 29, and Greg Marshall, 27, both of Milwaukee — took their hip-hop music from the underground scene in Milwaukee to classrooms in Wisconsin and several cities across the country. (more…)

Cincinnati, OH – Newport Middle School on Monday will become one of only 90 schools in the U.S. and Canada to host a science-oriented hip-hop show sponsored by NASA and Honeywell.

The 45-minute-long “FMA Live!” concert is a combination of scientific presentations, stunts, lasers and explosions, backed up pounding bass and hip-hop beats. It features actors and is designed to disavow kids of that age-old assumption that science, by its nature, just can’t be fun. (more…)

Students at dozens of campuses across the country walked out of classes October 1 in support of the Jena 6. The walk-out was organized by hip-hop artists Mos Def, M1 and Talib Kweli, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Change the Game, the National Hip Hop Political Convention and activists from 25 college campuses.

The anger at the plight of the six–and more generally at racism in communities across the U.S.–could be seen in the walkouts. (more…)

On Sept. 26, David Banner joined fellow MC Master P, music industry executives and scholars to discuss offensive language in hip-hop music before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Reading from a statement, the 33-year-old Mississippi rapper/producer tenaciously defended hip-hop from its detractors.

During his testimony, Banner said, “If you fix our communities, we’ll fix our lyrics.” (more…)

Artist/ Activist Mos Def along with M1, Talib Kweli, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Sankofa Community Empowerment, Change the Game, National Hip Hop Political Convention, Hip Hop Association, and student leaders from 50 campuses call for a National Student Walk-Out to rally and show support for the Jena 6, who are being denied their human rights by the Louisiana criminal justice system.

Mos Def is asking students worldwide to assist in the fight against racial injustice and show solidarity for these young people, who have been treated unequally by the law. The prosecution of these young men symbolizes a terrible miscarriage of justice, by punishing students who opposed segregation in their schools and disregarding the threatening acts of others who advocate it. (more…)

A prison inmate who had implicated a former Los Angeles Police Department officer in the shooting death of rap star Biggie Smalls has renounced his story.

Waymond Anderson said in a recent deposition that he lied about LAPD involvement in the Smalls slaying as part of a “scam” concocted by two other convicts to squeeze a large monetary settlement out of the city. (more…)

Two rappers, sitting side-by-side in a House hearing room, went in different directions Tuesday on the need for hip-hop artists to expunge their work of sexist and violent language. One apologized to women for past songs that demeaned them, while another was defiant.

Former gangsta rapper Master P, whose real name is Percy Miller, told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing that he is now committed to producing clean lyrics. (more…)