Hip Hop Congress

Students working to develop new hip-hop fraternity

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Three IU students are working to create a hip-hop fraternity on campus.

They’ve laid the foundation and created a plan, and now their dream is becoming a reality.

Eta Iota Rho, or HIP, is a new fraternity that focuses on the four main elements of hip-hop: break dance, graffiti, DJing and MCing

The founders of HIP said they want to educate the community, express themselves artistically and end the negative stereotypes associated with hip-hop.

The fraternity has three founders – sophomores Keane Rowley, Justin Wolverton and Quinnton Parker – but hopes to have 12 members participating by the time it finishes organizing.

The three students met their freshman year at IU’s Breakdance Club and share a passion for all aspects of hip-hop culture.

Rowley said HIP is the first fraternity that embraces hip-hop values.

The three founders searched for established national organizations, but could not find anything that resembled exactly what they wanted to create at IU. So, they decided to create HIP.

“We want to be something different,” Rowley said.

HIP has a Student Organization Account, a constitution and is currently seeking financial aid. It will begin living in a house and taking pledges next fall.

Rowley said that even though people may not take HIP seriously now, every organization has to start somewhere.

He said HIP intends to be a co-ed, multi-ethnic fraternity and while it wants to include people of all stripes, it is particularly interested in those with some previous hip-

hop experience

“If a person has a desire, we won’t exclude them,” Rowley said. “But we are looking for people that have some prior knowledge.”

Each HIP member will learn about the four main elements of hip-hop but will specialize in one particular area.

The founders said the fraternity will have an event once a week and will use those events to educate the community about hip-hop. There are negative stereotypes associated with hip-hop, the founders said, and HIP would like to sponsor these events to show the community its positive side.

“Hip-hop is a form of art,” Parker said. “We use it to express ourselves.”

The founders said the media plays a role in perpetuating these negative stereotypes. Hip-hop is often associated with violence and gangs, Parker said.

“Hip-hop is commercialized,” he said.

The people who have a passion for hip-hop are also stereotyped, Wolverton said.

“People say white guys can’t dance,” Wolverton said. “But it just isn’t true.”

The fraternity also intends to portray the aspects of hip-hop that are underground, the founders said.

For HIP’s first event, it will collaborate with IU’s Hip-Hop Congress. The event will be a break dance battle held Dec. 1, with a top prize of $500.

And while HIP’s roots are at IU, the founders said they ultimately want to become a national organization.

“The main goal for expanding to other universities,” Wolverton said, “is to spread the positive image of hip-hop everywhere we can.”

For more information about the fraternity, contact the members individually through Facebook.