Hip Hop Congress

Weekly Update o3.3o.o5

NUMBER 28 at INDIANA STATE:
Wow we keep on moving. We’d like to formally announce that we’ve added our 28th Chapter to the Hip Hop Congress. The newly formed Hip Hop 4 One at Indiana State. Look out for big things coming out of this chapter. Midwest chapters, please send Aaron (ISU Chapterhead) an email welcoming him to the fold. indianastate@hiphopcongress.com All other chapters, hit him up as well. Let’s build a solid foundation for years to come.

URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Finalizing plans for our HipHop Week…hopefully it’ll be a full fledged one..so far we’ve got IL Breaks 2005 (April 23rd) and Blueprint/Illogic (April 21st) show confirmed. More info on the b-boy event is available at www.ilbreaks2005.lostpaperclips.com. Neighboring chapters are invited to come through! I’ll be in touch with y’all. Other than that, the weather was great today so we had a big cipher on the quad. Got a date auction fundraiser coming up as well as a few shows (Video Trapped the Rapper Tour, Talib Kweli). Peace!

USC:
What up from Hip Hop Congress! We got a double-special for you’all this week. Not only are we throwing down a weekly meeting tomorrow, Weds. March 30. But we also doing a special meeting on Friday, April 1. We’ll be wrapping up the semesters’ meetings on Friday with a special freestyle workshop featuring the ever-popular Rahman. And there is the possibility of us watching a movie on freestyling. We’ll also be talking about an article that appeared on DaveyD.com entitled “Civil Rights Leaders: Back Up Before You Disrespect Hip Hop Again!!!” By: Adisa Banjoko.

Respect HHC.

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Weekly Update o3.18.o5

NEW CHAPTER: BELOIT:
We want to welcome Barry who has started our 27th chapter of the Hip Hop Congress, and the first in Wisconsin at Beloit College. They have a great event in one month. Check out details here: http://www.soniaandmatt.com/cypherstyles. To contact them, email beloit@hiphopcongress.com

Welcome, Beloit!

MESSAGE FROM THE BELOIT CHAPTERHEAD:
Hip-Hop Congress,

What’s cracking brothers and sisters? Beloit College is thrilled to be your 27th and newest Chapter and I just wanted to formally introduce myself and send out a big whats up to the community. My name is Barry Rabkin, I founded the Beloit College Breakdancing club in 2002 and our club is all about getting involved with our hip-hop community, especially in the midwest since we’re located right between chicago, madison and milwaukee.

In the summer I’ll be in my hometown Pittsburgh so if anyone lives near there and wants to chill or needs support organizing any events come talk to me. As Jordan was kind enough to mention, we’re throwing a huge completely free intercollegiate all day hip-hop battle at our school Saturday, April 16th. We’ll have nice cash prizes for the top competing hip-hop talent in the area, MC’s, Poppers, 3 person Break Crews and Artists. We’ll have BroDJ, John Swan and Kid CutUp, some of the best hip-hop dj’s in the area spinning for us and It’ll definitely be an event to remember and a great chance for us all to get to know each other. Check out http://www.cypherstyles.com for all the details and please spread the word and website to any friends, hip-hop performers or connections you have in the Midwest area who might be interested in it. Our flood arena can hold 2300+ and we’re all about trying to pack the place with screaming hip-hop lovers. If you have access color printer and want to help out, it would be great if you could print out some copies of our flyer (from the FAQ questions section of our above event website) and put them up in your area in some high traffic spots.

Anyway, really I just wanted to introduce myself and my club to you all. Since I know most of you have never heard of Beloit, we’re a little but very lively liberal arts college right between chicago, madison and milwaukee and near rockford and janesville. We’re thrilled to be involved, thanks to Jordan and Amer for bringing us in and to all the people who have already sent us warm greetings. Much love to all of you, I speak for our whole club when I say that we’re looking forward to a long, fun, eventful future together, peaceout everybody.

-Barry Rabkin
The 27th Chapter of the Hip-Hop Congress, Beloit College

THE JACK ARTIST:
HHC artist The Jacka has released his second album, The Jack Artist. It has national distribution and should be in Towers, Best Buys and Sam Goody’s across the country. Check him out here: www.thejacka.com. It is a little more street oriented than you may be accustomed to, but the Jacka is going to do a lot to help our streets. In his own words:

“Not only am I talking about certain things that people are living and going through everyday but I’m speaking on ways they can change. So it isn’t like I am leading them into the fire. You got to really be…they say “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”; you got to be “a sheep in wolves clothing” in order to talk to people from the streets. You got to be them…you got to live just like them and let them see another side of you so they’ll know that ain’t the only thing that you do. I mean you may not change everybody but a few people will.”

The music is dope and he’s starting to get a great buzz. Check him out and pick up a copy!

SHAMAKO FREESTYLES FOR 30 MINUTES:
Every time I listen to this, I am completely convinced I have never heard anything like it. And I think he can do better. But this works for now. 30 Minutes STRAIGHT of freestyles from Shamako Noble. DJ Roosevelt Treasurechest throws a variety of beats at him over the course of the half hour which was broadcast on WIUS in Bloomington, Indiana. Download the MP3, listen to it daily, study it, pass it around: www.goldenmeanmusic.com/shamako/shamako30.mp3.

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Weekly Update o3.o9.o5

HIP HOP CAUCUS:
The time is right. The moment is now. The Hip Hop Caucus has just launched and is currently solidifying support from national hip hop and voting orgs. The Hip Hop Congress is involved on the ground floor on this initiative. Reverend Yearwood of the Hiphop Summit Action Network and Citizen Change is leading the charge. Stay tuned. This is a historic initiative that will unite the resources of all national hiphop organizations. The results will be amazing.

MINDGAMES EMCEE BATTLE:
The Academy of Hip Hop at the Reikes Center presents Mindgames: An Emcee Battle @ the Cage
32 man emcee battle for $500
$20 entry fee
8 team 2 on 2 battle for $300
$30 entry fee
May 7th, 2005
1-5PM
$10 at the door $7 w/flyer or internet posting

Performances by:
Dem-One
D Labrie/ Tha A.L.L.I.A.N.C.E.
Nac-One
Big Murph
GTA
Students of the Riekes Center Academy of Hip Hop
and the Boys and Girls Club of Redwood City
Live Painting by David Seiler

On the wheels of steel:
Ren the Vinyl Archeoligist (True Skool)
Tone Def (KMEL)
Dj Wreckanoise
Hosted By Shamako Noble
with surprise guest judges
3455 Edison Way
Menlo Park, Ca 94025
For more information please contact 408-551-9728 or e-mail shamako@riekes.org
www.riekes.org or www.humanenhancement.net

GRINNELL:
The Brother Ali and Treologic Party this Saturday was off the hook. They performed for a full house of Grinnell students swaying their arms and nodding their heads to the beat. We have tons planned for April including Hip-Hop Poet Kevin Koval and Chicago Beatbox.

Over the weekend the Grinnell College community was confronted with a very blatant act of hate when students found a number of swastikas defacing school walls, bathrooms, and posters. The entire campus community including active members of Hip-Hop are voicing their concerns and their discontent with this very disturbing occurence. Please send this as our update for the week to create more awareness of the rising anti-Semitism and hatred that is affecting OUR college campuses. This is a very REAL issue that is happening all over the world. Tomorrow there will be an article in the Des Moines Register, and the local newspaper in Grinnell also plans on doing an article. The campus also plans on holding a march and rally within the next couple of days. There is much more that needs to be done. I would love to work with other hip-hop chapters that would be interested in raising awareness over these issues. It would mean sooo much to me if you would send this.

Thank you,
Elena Rubin- Communities Chair and a very Proud Filipino American Jew

For more information, please email mailto:hiphop@grinell.edu

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Weekly Update o3.o3.o5

IU AWARENESS FESTIVAL:
This Awareness Festival was truly incredible. I showed up on Thursday, a day after Afeni Shakur had spoken. There were poetry slams, graffiti walls, day long bboy battles, emcee battles, dj battles, and much more. The event was well run and well attended. One person commented, “This is the most diverse I have ever seen Bloomington.”

Brother Ali played the best show I have seen in many months. Honors English did their best show I have seen in quite some time. Mac Lethal was ill. Topspeed, Trackstar, Espi, and many other DJ’s scratched the hell outta some records.

Big ups to Berkowitz and the IU chapter for really running things and cementing Hip Hop Congress in the Bloomington community for the next five years.

There were visitors from all over, including Shamako—who freestyled for 30 minutes, Jordan from NYC who took a lot of pictures, Fruchter—who mumbled but kept us laughing, Christina repped Southern California, Victor and the Urbana Champaign crew freestyled and repped UC nicely, as well as our new friends at Indiana State. Oh, and I was there, but mostly to make sure Jordan and Shamako got to where they should be on time, and to watch an incredible basketball game.

If you find Shamak’s bag, let us know.

It was a great time and we kind of apologize to my sister’s roommates for keeping them up until 5 AM for three nights in a row.

Again, congratulations on the first five years in Bloomington. See you at IU in another 5.

Ron

SHAMAKO’S 30 MINUTE FREESTYLE:
As mentioned above, Shamako ripped it for 30 minutes. Check the MP3 here: www.goldenmeanmusic.com/shamako/shamako30.mp3

Also, see the entire Festival from Poetry Slam to IU basketball’s incredible triumph over Michigan State through Jordan’s eyes here: http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=z0k981h.20rsjfut&x=0&y=-gkf7ta

And this article from the student newspaper about the event: http://www.idsnews.com/subsite/story.php?id=2815

4th ANNUAL CONFERENCE:
The date is tentatively set for Chicago, Illinois from June 23rd to the 26th. See you there. More details and information will be forthcoming.

WASH U:
Sup Earth,
This weekend was bananas! We had Scratch, Mainflow and Brother Ali all perform. The shows all went really well, and I was able to actually spend some time with most of the artists. Scratch put on a ridiculous show, but I think I coulda done the same with a loop pedal and some practice. We are trying to stay movin here, hope yall are livin as well as we are.

Peace
Yoni

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