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Hip Hop Appreciation Week 2010
May 16-23, 2010
Greetings Hip Hop Community, The Temple of Hip Hop is proud to announce the 13th Hip Hop Appreciation Week (HHAW) will be celebrated May 16-23, 2010 our theme for this year is ORDER! Hiphoppas around the world are encouraged to use this week to get yourself, family, community in ORDER so that we can move forward in our collective consciousness. The goal of HHAW is to de-criminalize the images of Hip Hop culture that are presented to the world by the mainstream media. During HHAW, Hiphoppas should amplify the work they’re doing in their community through Hip Hop culture. As we begin this new decade, there are so many remarkable things happening in Hip Hop culture from the creative elements,to the political, academic and spiritual aspects. Now is the perfect time for the international Hip Hop community to get in ORDER! Last year we celebrated the 35th Anniversary of Hip Hop culture; let us stop doubting who we are and what we are here to do! As we get in ORDER, it’s time to get past the “personality” of our Hip Hop leaders, decide what is best for Hip Hop culture and how it will affect our children’s future! As a unified international Hip Hop community we have the ability to use ORDER and transform the world into what we desire it to be! HHAW is a great time to learn or re-affirm your appreciation, support and work for the development, growth and preservation of Hip Hop culture through various activities and events in your community! Here are a few suggestions for ORDER during HHAW 2010: 1. Decide what Hip Hop culture really means to you and how you can contribute to its development, growth and preservation. 2. Get involved with or create an organization that allows you to use your gifts and talents, share those blessings with your community. 3. Study and teach the “Gospel of Hip Hop” and other information that give an authentic perspective of Hip Hop culture beyond entertainment. 4. Acknowledge May 16th 2001, as “Hip Hop Independence Day”, this is the day that the Hiphop Declaration of Peace was presented to the United Nations to establish Hip Hop as an “international culture of peace and prosperity.” 5. Contact your local media outlets about programs for HHAW that help to de-criminalize the image of Hip Hop culture and highlight the contributions of Hip Hop pioneers. 6. Plan HHAW events and activities that include input from parents, youth, educators, spiritual leaders, politicians, business and community members. 7. Teach the youth about Hip Hop culture and provide creative activities that allow them to express themselves through the elements of Hip Hop. Let’s use HHAW to practice ORDER as we teach about Hip Hop culture and the many contributions we have made for positive social change in our communities around the world. This will empower Hiphoppas to rise above the negative stereotypes that mainstream media continue to attempt to place on our people, our ways of express and our culture. Have a positive, progressive and productive HHAW 2010, Word! Minister Server - The Hip Hop Life Coach
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Guru Dies After Long Battle With Cancer, Offers Final Letter To Fans & Supporters
By Allen Starbury
After a nearly two-month hospitalization, legendary rapper Guru (best known as the frontman for Gangstarr) died Monday morning (April 19), after a long battle with cancer, reports DJPremierBlog.com.
He was just 43 years old.
Solar, Guru's business partner and sidekick in recent years, told the Yo!Raps (who's PR company had been coordinating press for Guru since his hospitalization) that the 43-year-old rapper had been suffering from a "malicious illness for over a year and after numerous special treatments under the supervision of medical specialists failed".
He had tried to keep the cancer diagnosis private, but in early March, news leaked that Guru had been admitted to the hospital, suffered a heart attack, and was recovering from a mystery illness. Previous reports said he suffered from Anoxia, effects from a lengthy history of asthma and lung problems, but these new findings reveal a much worst condition.
Click HERE for full article.
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Mojofiti Names Afrika Bambaataa to Its Board of Directors
Godfather of Hip Hop and Leader of Universal Zulu Nation Unites with Mojofiti to Break Down Language Barriers
January 18, 2010, DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mojofiti�, a global network of people working together to break down language barriers, today announced that Afrika Bambaataa has joined the company's board of directors.
Known as the Godfather of Hip Hop, Bambaataa has spent his career spreading Hip Hop culture throughout the world. He is one of the three originators of breakbeat deejaying and is known as the creator of Hip Hop Culture and The Father of The Electro Funk Sound. While on tour, Bambaataa continues to spread messages of peace and education around the world. As the founder and leader of the Universal Zulu Nation (UZN), Bambaataa plans to mobilize its hundreds of thousands of members to join Mojofiti in the effort to help eliminate language barriers on a global scale.
"As we further develop our plans to expand Mojofiti on a global basis, we are focused on ensuring the leadership of our company is comprised of global thinkers and people who can make an impact on an international scale," said Dennis Wakabayashi, founder of Mojofiti. "Afrika's worldly views and incredible career spent reaching people across borders with new cultural expressions and messages of peace makes him an ideal fit for our board of directors. Afrika is truly an inspiration to us all, and we look forward to working with him and the members of the UZN to achieve our common goals."
"Over the years, the international Hip Hop community and the UZN have been on the forefront of helping to spread peace, culture and freedom of expression throughout the world," said Bambaataa. "While progress has been made, more must be done to achieve this important goal. I'm excited to unite the Mojofiti team with the UZN and leverage our strong membership base to work together to achieve our common goal of breaking down language barriers everywhere for everyone."
Mojofiti is taking a collaborative and open approach to developing a series of real-time language translation-enabled solutions by involving users, developers, linguists and companies from around the world to further the technology advancement process. Some of its solutions will focus on the needs of businesses and consumers while others will be geared toward having the convenience of real-time language translation anywhere, anytime.
About Mojofiti Inc.
Mojofiti Inc. is a company focused on building a truly global community by working together to break down language barriers. Mojofiti partners with any person or company with a desire to rally together to overcome this next frontier of the Internet so that all human beings worldwide can communicate without language barriers, for the first time in history. Mojofiti's team is currently developing and implementing a range of language-enabled technology solutions and platforms designed to promote collaboration, communication and global unity. For more information about Mojofiti, please visit www.mojofiti.com.
Mojofiti is a trademark of Mojofiti Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Contacts
104 West Partners
Kathryn Marshall, 720-407-6063
kathryn.marshall@104west.com
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Katalyst arts program unites youth from many backgrounds
Seattle Times
By Marian Liu
Photo by Mike Siegel
Tacked together with plywood, the recording booth provided only the bare basics — a mike and a headset — but Dennis Randle didn't care. It was his sanctuary from the streets.
"This is where one Blood and one Crip are now homies," said Randle, 24. "You connect artistically and become close community."
Randle spoke between recording sessions at Katalyst, a music and graffiti workshop run by Washington Asian Pacific Islander Community Services (WAPI) in the Chinatown International District. Established in 1993, the nonprofit has been offering classes since 2006 in various hip-hop disciplines (music, recording and art), taught by local artists like the Blue Scholars, Gabriel Teodros, Daniel "King Khazm" Kogita and DJ B-Girl.
"The more time [young people] put into music, they less time they put into other things," said Mia Beardsley, aka DJ B-Girl. "We're taking the street hustle and turning it into something positive."
Some kids come to the class through WAPI, which conducts substance-abuse prevention and treatment for youth. Some are ordered to go by a judge for past transgressions. Others, like 13-year-old Shea Dailey, simply come to "hang out and do art."
Together the students, from teens to 20s, are putting on a free showcase featuring youth performances and art June 18 at Hidmo, a restaurant and meeting space in the Central District. They are also collaborating on a compilation album, filled with songs recorded in class.
Randle is hard at work at his. He pokes his head out of the makeshift studio after recording a hook, asking local artist Mike Lont, aka Mic Flont, how it sounds. After a nod of approval, he continues recording.
He chants: "I walk like a champion/talk like a champion/eat like a champion/then repeat."
"The court ordered me to come here," said Randle, aka Greedy. "I come from being poor ... but here they give us food, they give us positivity."
The goal is to provide music certification so the students can be their own bosses as artists, and maybe even grow into the program's teachers.
"It's an alternative to drug usage, something that can be built into a career," said Greg Garcia, WAPI's executive director.
But it's a lean program, dependent on grants. There are only 20-some students, and many come by bus on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. They huddle in little circles, in sweats and jeans, passing around their black sketchbooks and reciting their rhymes off crumpled loose-leaf binder paper. Besides these sketchbooks, they share an earnestness to learn.
"This is something I look forward to, it's a hater-free zone," said Charles Wilton, a senior at Rainier Beach High School. "It's safe."
The office is humble: There's the plywood recording studio in the corner, and there are a few computers for production work, but some laptops were recently stolen. Decoration is minimal, except for a graffiti mural in the back with mugs of former teachers, like the popular Seattle hip-hop duo Blue Scholars. Posted on the walls on butcher paper are handwritten rules of conduct — which include "no beefing" (or fighting), "don't come in high/drunk" and "no swearing."
The standard is respect.
"Everybody comes in with a blank slate," said Lont, 28. "There are no egos."
Don Nguyen, 16, has been in treatment for 17 weeks, 15 weeks sober. Known by the tag "Junior," he joined the class after hearing about the graffiti component: "The people here, they motivate me, they motivate me to be like them."
Others attest to the program's effectiveness. Both Randle and his good friend Star LeBron have gone back to school — Seattle Central and Shoreline Community College.
Growing up in New York, LeBron admits she was "all over the place, and not doing school.
"I was kind of a bad kid and I stumbled across this. ... You can do court, or do music. You get free studio time here. It's the only way to get out of this harsh lifestyle. ... The environment is real. They don't treat you as a student, they treat you as a friend."
Katalyst program coordinator Beardsley is often the students' confidante. They have her cell number.
"The biggest challenge of the program is attendance," said Beardsley, a DJ, producer and hip-hop artist. "Something may happen at home, or at school, or if they're slipping back and disappear, so I'm always so happy to see everybody."
Sometimes, Beardsley is the only person that knows what is exactly going down in their lives.
"They have a big moment, they have to make a big decision and the key thing is to come through for them," said Beardsley, 33. "It's fulfilling to be that person, to gain that trust."
She is looking into expanding Katalyst into the South End of Seattle with more classes — recording, emceeing, deejaying, production and graffiti. She also wants to kick off jam sessions on Saturdays.
"This is where red and blue rags can meet," said Randle, referring to youths with different gang affiliations. "We don't know where nobody lives, we just know their hearts. We all have that commitment and passion for music."
Marian Liu: 206-464-3825 or mliu@seattletimes.com
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