TIHHF2010: Lessons from the Teacha
“KRS-One specialized in music… I’ll only use this type of style when I choose it!”
and so a young Kris Parker started off his legendary diss South Bronx, simultaneously big upping his hood and dissing on the QB projects and equally legendary MC Shan, Juice Crew, and DJ Marley Marl.
A legendary – controversial – figure in hip-hop, KRS-ONE’s credibility and history is untouchable: responsible for countless rap classics, the Teacha has toured the world, performing solo and with the legendary Boogie Down Productions; put his credibility towards campaigns for Nike, Sprite, and more; founded the Temple of Hip-hop, one of the organizations responsible for stewarding hip-hop culture; and served as an elder (if unpredictable) statesman for years.
During the second evening of the Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival, as the crowd swelled for the Saturday night concert (which KRS-ONE headlined and closed out), a small group of press passes and video cameras gathered, selected by the organizers to partake in a closed-door session with Blastmaster KRS-ONE.
As the volume steadily grew to a raucous clamor outside, KRS shared insights with the audience:
on technology
the need to master (and not be mastered by) our tools
The need for hip-hop education
how hip-hop should be taught and available in school curriculum
on rap’s death and hip-hop’s growth
and – making a strong display for why he deserves his name, the Teacha, he broke down the history of New York urban radio, from WBLS and KISS FM’s radio/DJ battles, to the founding of Hot 97 – and its later abandonment of what he considers to be real-school hip-hop
Last, before rushing out the door, he broke down what he considers the hip-hop lifestyle to be – not flossing or throwing around stacks, but knowing how to get by and survive and thrive
Throughout the weekend, the local Temple of Hip-Hop members (big up to Trinity College Temple of Hip-hop – the nation’s first collegiate chapter!) were showing out for KRS-ONE’s new book, The Gospel of Hip-Hop. At the close of this session, his associates passed out complimentary copies to all the journalists in attendance, as the teacha was whisked away to his green room.
Recap: The Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival 2010
[Flick 1: Nomadic Massive on stage]
What’s good, party people?
This past weekend, Nomadic Wax’s first-stringers must have all bailed on them, because Ben was desperate enough (all praises due) to issue me a press pass to the 5th annual Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival. As part-time c-list blogger (and so d-list journalist), I was hyped to see how my online credentials would transfer into the real world. And so, last Friday, with Bboy Andrew in tow as my enlisted photographer, I jumped into a borrowed car and headed north from New Haven on I-91.
Pulling into Hartford a quick hour later with Alchemist and Clipse records on blast, Andrew and I cut our way through the Trinity campus in stealth mode. The festival actually started that morning with a series of in-class lectures, but we planned to hit town just in time for dinner; so we made our way to registration just in time to collect our press passes, introduce ourselves to some familiar faces, and hit the invited delegates’ networking dinner
[Flick 2: Bboy Andrew, me, Jasmine, and DJ Nio]
Over that dinner – throughout the weekend – the Nomadic Wax/Trinity Hip-Hop crew did a strong job of creating community between the invited hip-hop writers, emcees, DJ’s, and activists. Whenever event organizers mingled with the crowd, they were building with guests and introducing delegates to one another – artists, workshop presenters, and even press members all bore the event sponsors’ co-sign. And so it was easy to connect and politic with anyone around – anyone displaying a TIHHF badge was already screened and trusted by at least some true hip-hop heads.
The atmosphere throughout the festival was full of this positivity, with a rare level of mutual respect and comfort among the attendees. The vibe was almost family reunion-style – I heard “brother” and “sister” thrown around like a 70s Blaxploitation flick. I’ve seen “networking”, especially at hip-hop events, often turn into a rodeo of promotional gimmicks and self-important rants. But there was a sense of purposefulness to most of the acts gathered in Hartford.
Many groups – Senegal’s Wagebele, Palestine’s DAM, the multinational Readnex Poetry Squad – have explicitly tied their musical identities to bigger issues, like African/Middle Eastern politics, social justice, and urban education. And even those hip-hoppers without explicit social agendas, such as RAH Zemos, still came across as driven by a vision of hip-hop culture as deeper than rap (no Rick Ross), pushing the culture further and bigger than the mainstream image of hip-hop as 45-second commercial interlude soundtrack. With this shared understanding, it makes sense that we would see each other as brothers- and sisters-in-arms for hip-hop.
[Flick 3: DJ Boo on the 1's and 2's]
That sense of positivity wasn’t just unifying people across regions or languages – all elements of the hip-hop culture were representing side-by-side, from Emceeing, DJing (big ups to DJ Boo [NYC] and DJ Nio [Italy]), Graf writing, Bboying, to Knowledge (the hip-hop scholars out in full force, along with the Temple of Hip-Hop). After waking up on Saturday, I drove over to Trinity’s campus and joined the emcee showcase, hosted by Self-Suffice and Undakova backed by DJ Nio, while local graf artists pieced up canvases feet away.
The second half of my afternoon was dedicated to an ill bboy battle, with a bracket filled by crews from the region. Bboy Andrew and his partner were knocked out in a close battle (1 vote away from a tie) in the first round, but I stuck around shooting flicks and politicking with the bboys in the spot. My Mighty Healthy ASIAN tee was getting a lot of looks and compliments from the heads in the crowd (what up my pinoy bboys and fly girls?) – i noticed that the asiatic representation in the bboy crews was much higher than among the emcees. An observation to come back to in the future.
[Flick 4: Warming up for the bboy battle]
As I broke it down with bboys, dj’s, and emcees alike, a troubling thought that remained in the back of my head was that, as much unity and love as we were seeing, one area of segregation that remained was between the diverse elements of hiphop. While we all came out to the same locale, I saw MC’s, DJ’s, and journalists building with one another, bboys sticking to themselves, preferring to vibe out to the music or warm up in tight circles; and i didn’t even have a chance to get at any of the graf writers in the spot.
During a 10 minute interlude between the first and second round of the bboy battle, Zulu Nation emcee K-Swift and a couple of other acts performed – but most bboys scattered to eat, drink, or practice, with only a fraction of the crowd sticking around and dancing or vibing to the intermission acts.
I would have loved to see more cross-elemental communication – the visual artists, musicians, and dancers seemed to all have their own spaces during most of the day. Most of the day, that is, until KRS-ONE took the stage to close the Saturday night concert.
Anyone who knows the Teacha a/k/a Blastmaster KRS-ONE knows that he has been at the very forefront of preserving and bringing together hip-hop’s elements, from his legendary crew Boogie Down Productions, to classic albums like Criminal Minded, and the Stop the Violence movement. Having seen his live performance on two previous occasions, I thought that I would have gotten used to his presence – but as soon as he took the stage, he didn’t let up for a minute until it was time to go home. The consummate performer.
Perhaps most inspirational, though, was how generous he was with the spotlight. Calling out the graf heads for their pieces on the walls, inviting bboys up from the crowd to rock with him, and then ceding the stage to other emcees to let them spit for a good ten minutes, he ended the weekend with a bomb of truth, love, and power – reminding us all that, in the end, hip-hop is bigger than any one of us, our elements, labels, or movements.
[Flick 5: culture on display]
As I drove back to New Haven late Saturday night (early Sunday morning?) alone with my thoughts (Bboy Andrew headed off with his Style Weapons crew earlier in the night), I bumped that same Alchemist record that I had been playing on my way up to Trinity, and reflected on the weekend.
In many ways, it was inspirational – more than the mixtape spots, offers for future shows, and prospects of the 2011 festival, the weekend reminded me that my art – emceeing, writing, photography, and more – is linked to something deeper than the individual products of my skill. It reminded me of that initial sense of a worldwide unified culture – bboys toprocking in France, dj’s cutting in Italy, emcees writing verses in China, and graf heads getting up across metro lines all over the world – and a vision of global brotherhood, sistahood, and positivity that it’s easy to forget when I’m solo in the studio mastering a track.
See yall in 2011!
[Stay tuned for more specific recaps of various elements of the festival, including musical acts, the bboy battle, and more]
MOA Live at Georgetown!
African Underground Live at Georgetown
Pioneer Hip-Hop Activist Waterflow to be featured in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE’s “Distant Relatives”
“Distant Relatives” Event Dec. 12 – A Conversation on the Deep-Rooted Connections and Evolution of Reggae and Hip-Hop; Moderated by MTV VJ Sway, Made Possible by VTech;
National Geographic Live will wrap up its fall event series with a groundbreaking evening featuring some of hip-hop’s most legendary figures. “Distant Relatives,” sponsored by VTech, will introduce hip-hop icon Nas and Grammy-winning artist Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley in a panel discussion about the complex history and under-examined relationship between reggae and hip-hop.
Moderated by MTV VJ Sway Calloway, “Distant Relatives” will feature a multitude of the indusry’s key contributors, including the infamous Kool Herc, Rakim, Daddy U-Roy, King Jammy, Jeff Chang, Pat McKay, Waterflow and DJ Red Alert.
International record label Nomadic Wax organized the African representation for the panel, bringing in Papa Moussa Lo a.k.a. Waterflow.
Waterflow is at the forefront of Wagëblë, a Senegalese hip-hop group formed in 1997, and an international “voice for the voiceless”. Wagëblë’s messages are universal, but their primary fous is to empower the youth of Africa, bringing politics to the head of the global hip-hop scene.
Waterflow has participated in numerous tours, shows, panels and workshops with Nomadic Wax, and maintains a presence in peace organizations like One People and at the schools and universities of Sénégal. As one of the world’s leading hip-hoppers using music as a platform for social change, Waterflow’s presence at “Distant Relatives” will add a historic, global perspective to an already established group of panelists.
The event will take place at National Geographic’s Grosvenor Auditorium in Washington D.C. on Saturday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m. Tickets are sold out, but the event will be streamed live and broadcast online for free at Natgeomusic.net.
An open-mic party will be hosted at the popular Washington nightclub, Zanzibar, following the event. Ticket holders will receive free admission with proof of purchase. For more information visit www.zanzibar-otw.com.
Hip-hop has evolved from its expressive African roots, traveled through the Caribbean and American colonies by way of the slave trade, sprouted up in Jamaica, and cemented itself in the streets of New York City as the multi-billion dollar indusry and all-encompassing culture we know today. Discussions will revolve around the social implications hip-hop and reggae culture have on the global community, and explore the origins of a music that traces back to African sounds and expressions.
About Nomadic Wax – Nomadic Wax is a fair-trade international record label and production company dedicated to producing and promoting global urban music and media.
About National Geographic Live:
National Geographic Live is the performing arts division of the National Geographic Society. It features live concerts, films and dynamic presentations by today’s leading explorers, scientists, filmmakers and photographers, covering a wide range of topics, including exploration and adventure; wildlife and habitat conservation; natural phenomena; world cultures and ancient history; and relevant issues such as climate change and sustainability. Proceeds from speaker series help fund future National Geographic initiatives in field research, exploration and education. For more information, visit www.nglive.org.
About Nat Geo Music:
Nat Geo Music, a division of National Geographic Entertainment, was established in 2007 to inspire people to care about the planet through the power of music. Content developed by Nat Geo Music is utilized across all National Geographic platforms, including online media, radio, print media, film and television. The Nat Geo Music label, launched in January 2009, records, releases and promotes modern music from around the globe from a variety of artists and genres. The Nat Geo Music Channel programs music from every corner of the planet and showcases global legends, local stars and up-and-coming artists. For more information, visit www.natgeomusic.net.
About ‘Distant Relatives’:
Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley and Nas, whose success as a duo was fermented in 2006 with the double-Grammy-Award-winning ‘Road to Zion,’ have created the album ‘Distant Relatives’ to explore and celebrate the correlations and connective history between reggae and hip-hop, paralleling both sounds to the motherland. ‘Distant Relatives’ is neither a remix nor a featured guest spot on a single track, but a fully collaborative effort opening new avenues of musical expression.
For interviews, media inquiries, or for information about other projects, etc. please contact Nomadic Wax via Ben Herson at (917) 225-8472 or ben@nomadicwax.com, and Magee McIlvaine at magee@nomadicwax.com.
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Words By : Amanda Macchia : mandee.macchia@gmail.com
