Hip Hop Congress

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

USC:
What up from Hip Hop Congress! It’s about damn time! We finally had our first HHC meeting. This week we will be in Taper Hall yet again, to do the second weekly meeting @ USC. This Friday HHC is planning on reintroducing, that’s right…”allow me to reintroduce myself…!”, our Freestyle Fridays in front of Tommy Trojan. Bring your phattest rhymes or just yourself for enjoyment to the center of campus at 12 p.m.

Ish is gonna be off the chain. This week in meeting we’ll also be discussing “Member Of 50 Cent’s Entourage Shot As 50 Dismisses Game From G-Unit” By Jayson Rodriguez, an article that appeared on Allhiphop.com.

GRINNELL:
Whas up Congress?! This weekend is going to be off the hook. We have Brother Ali and Treologic coming in this Saturday to a perform for a full house. This week is also the kickoff of our weekly Elementz event which will give students the space to explore and practice their skillz whether that be MCin or Breakin. If anyone from the Iowa or Midwest chapters are interested in coming up this Saturday for the concert please email hiphop@grinnell.edu.

Paz,
Elena

IRVINE:
UC Irvine has been busy planning the Hip Hop Film Festival. It is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, March 9 @ 7pm. We will be screening SBX, Freestyle: the Art of Rhyme, and Breath Control- the History of the Human Beatbox. Also, we will be having a special performance by HHC’s own Rahman Jamal to cap off the night.

Jeremy

LORAS:
Loras College chapter hosted HHC artists IsWhat?! on Feb. 24th. We had a great crowd that was blown away by their jazz/hip hop styles blessed with lyrical madness and unmatched jazzy beatboxing by Napoleon Maddox. We also had a House Party at the Loras College Intercultural House which was live as well. We are working on putting together a Variety show for April.

TEXAS STATE:
Hey what’s up this week:

March 3rd: We will have a promo on campus passing out flyers and giving PSA’s about getting students to become involved in Politics

March 5th: The Hip Hop Congress will be host our Second MC Battle The Survival of the Fittest II also we have some Hip Hop Representatives that are going to participate in The Texas State Leadership Exchange.

We are getting ready for the first annual TRiO Day. It will be on April 2nd our focus is on underprivileged kids. We’re setting up workshops that focus on Hip Hop and The Hip Hop Industry and incorporate that into higher education and try to get them motivated and excited about Hip Hop.

SAN JOSE STATE:
What’s crackin folks? Some of our members hit up the Goapele concert here at SJSU in the Student Union. She performed very well and for those folks who don’t know who Goapele is cop her album when it comes out she’s dope. She gets down and sings hooks for Oakland’s Hieroglyphics, and is coming out with her solo album pretty soon. Next Tuesday we finna have our 2nd Annual Distortion 2 Static college campus performance while they are doing there college tour. Distortion 2 Static is a bay-area based hip-hop tv show that comes on every other Sunday on the WB at midnite. Well that’s what’s going down in the 408, so til’ next week holla back. Payce.

VASHON:
We got our beats chosen for the mixtape. Mr. G decided to cipher with us. We promised not to leave his classroom a mess. Our ball team keeps winning. V-side!

That’s it. Big update. Big ups.

Peace and Love,
Ron Gubitz
Hip Hop Congress

“If you train, they will train” —Shamako the Dragon

“You gotta have that passion, or what’s the point of living?” —Ajene Moye