Blogs
Trinity Hip Hop Festival: Not Your Father’s Hip Hop
Loading ...
International Hip Hop, as seen through the eyes of R.C. Holmes.
Hartford CT – Since I had never previously gone to Hartford, I didn’t know what to expect. Upon arriving, I saw aspects to remind me of its history. The colonial architecture of the buildings, the statues of old war heroes, industrial factories, and the undertones of a metropolitan area spoke much about the quaint city. After a few short turns, I found myself looking at the gates of Trinity College; a storied co-educational college with gothic architecture and a medieval aesthetic.
However, enter one building and you are faced with something totally out of the ordinary for a campus of its feel, Hip Hop. The shock was the equivalent of having a shark thrown in fresh water, in a few steps, I went from Henry David Thoreau to Chubb Rock. On stage was a show waiting to explode; band members, with instruments in hand, going through sound checks and displaying the potential for organic sound to meet technology half-way. A crowd of students, neighborhood residents and others from abroad anxiously waiting to be amazed, amused, and entertained and such eclectic styles that one would not know what type of concert it was if not for the advertising. Seriously, if there, you witnessed a range from button-down shirts to t’s, slacks to tights (and everything in between), sneaks to high-heels, bald heads to dreads and Stetson hats to baseball caps. The scene itself was craftily organized but raw and though there was a main stage for featured artists to wreck their flow, it could be argued that the stage was everywhere. Though there was a steady dose of lyricism diving from stage, there was just as much swimming in the hallway leading to the green room, on the main floor where the audience was stationed and even in the concession area, attendees were getting both sustenance and substance both from what was being sold and/or flowed. Like air, the art form was everywhere and those in attendance needed it to breathe.
In the midst of all the stimuli, I was able to catch up with one of the co-founders of the festival, Ben Herson, who was able to give a bit of the festival’s history. Herson then offered that, in 2005, Magee McIlvaine (also a co-founder the festival) booked Nomadic Wax for a performance. In that show, artists from Brazil, Nigeria, and Tanzania performed and because the show went so well, the Trinity International Hip Hop was born. One month later, Ben and Magee had coffee with Jason Acevedo, and with the help of numerous others, organized the first official festival in 2006. Since then they have decided to stick with the formula; keep it international, keep it underground. The current overview of the festival was then given by one of is co-organizers, Elizabeth Kennedy. The festival is “definitely a space of community,” said Kennedy. She further spoke of how it was for both the college and the community and how it has broken away from the mainstream representation of hip hop by bringing a consciousness that is often unmatched?. According to Kennedy, “We are opening minds to what hip hop really is, talking about things, all forms, even those that get ignored.”
And that’s exactly what happened in every aspect. Hosts/Performers Mikal A. Lee aka Hired Gun and counterpart Princess of Controversy were in a word, real. In a sentence, they were real to the point of liberation while sharing their origins in their presentations. Hired Gun showed the New York pride and the delivery reminiscent of hip hop’s pioneers and the Princess of Controversy rode the beat turning poetry into flow and bringing go-go back to hip hop in a way that only D. C could. With DJ Craig G on the wheels, he made sure to keep it hip hop making sure that he paid homage to Brooklyn and South Bronx while offering proper respect both to any feeders along the way and across the globe. His set was married to all hip hop with samples from TV themes and other styles of music, familiar and scarcely heard melodies and more. Everything played was also conducive to crowd members from ages eight to infinity and no one wondered about the youngest, b-boying attendee (literally eight years old) as he was being babysat by hip hop in an environment dubbed by Craig G as “the original global hip hop festival.”
As the first act, Mr. Reo, hit the stage, the festival’s character was encapsulated by his performance. The Flatbush, NY resident of Haitian heritage poured acceptance on the crowd creating a bouillon with the multiple spirits in the room. With his signature line “we’re all Haitian by association” he continued to share more of his culture with the audience in addition to spewing hot fire over all within earshot. When asked about his being able to perform at Trinity, he stated that he was “ecstatic”, “this is how hip hop is supposed to happen,” he said. The excitement he exhibited during our conversation was indicative of the venue’s vibe. He identified “a change going on in the music” and implored others to get hooked in. Immediately following Mr. Reo was the African Underground All Stars and if an additional dose of consciousness was desired, African Underground did not disappoint in the least. Covering topics such as poverty, war, long-term commitments, meaningful relationships and parental responsibilities, AU was able to do so while giving an energy-filled show that tricked the audience into dealing with real issues in the midst of fun. To shut down the night, Game Rebellion gave the crowd a workout with its fusion of hip hop and hard rock to satisfy those harboring a thirst for the mosh pit. And, just in case you were wondering, this all happened during the first concert, on the first night, of the festival.
Day two presented event s designed to have a truly interactive flavor. The workshops and exhibits presented the international takes and original aspects, of the components of hip hop. From the Czech Republic (or as they suggested, “The Center of Europe”) the Beat Burger Band dared all in attendance to see the art of the beat box as a multi-person performance. Creating a vibe for the whole family, audience members of all ages were given the opportunity to display whatever skills they had. Mikal A. “Hired Gun” Lee then resurfaced but this time as the instructor for the freestyle workshop. Even before giving participants the tools to try for themselves, Mikal had them all stand to view a documentary which featured various perspectives of freestyle flow. Within the workshop, the interconnectivity of jazz, church preaching, Muhammad Ali sayings was displayed and brought home with footage of The Roots’ Black Thought and Questlove (on the beat box) displaying the art form. But it didn’t end there; Mikal began building the audience members up to freestyle, one word at a time, reminding them not to think to hard about what was happening. “The older we are, the harder it is to let ourselves be”, Lee said, and the younger members in the group wasted no time in going for theirs. The b-boys were not overlooked as the documentary, Planet B-boy, showed how b-boying has impacted the world conquering language, culture and race showing how hip hop has no beginning or end. And then, it was from the screen to reality as an in-person exhibit was done in front of those in attendance. For bona fide intellectuals, the festival had something for them too. The panel discussing “Stereotypes in Hip Hop” lead by Professors Nicholas Conway, Dr. Emily Musil, and Dr. Gail Hilson Woldu presented facts, philosophies and strong opinions on the excellence and evils of what hip hop has now become and the ways in which the media has helped this image.
Fast forward a few hours and yes, the music again reigned supreme. The Beat Burger Band returned from the workshops to put on a show and that’s exactly what they did, performing background for a freestyle session and then becoming components of a solo human jukebox. The ladies of Poetic Pilgrimage, a Muslim duo from the UK, took it to another level going from boom-bap to roots reggae in rhyme. Blitz the Ambassador then took the stage and was, in a phrase, “that work!” marrying beast rhymes, funk, and jazz undertones, gave the room a raw energy as only the rapper from Ghana could. The horn section could have been a show of their own as their cutting sound and organized movements left nothing to be desired. In spinning through the familiar grooves of Rakim, 
Black Sheep and Big Pun to name a few, he made sure that he continuously released his lyrics to give a song. In asking Blitz what he thought about the festival, he responded by stating that the festival was “the epitome of what hip hop is supposed to be… what the industry is lacking and missing.” Judging by the roar of the crowd while he was on the stage, they couldn’t agree more. And if that was not enough, the man of the hour, K’naan, laid his soul on the line for the people who packed in to be blessed by his presence. As the quintessential artist, he allowed his music to display who he was, from the two opening songs one could have suggested that this was a World Music concert and they probably could have made a compelling argument as proof. Yet, as the energy was sustained and the djembe came off, the rapper, singer, instrumentalist and poet assured us all of one thing, hip hop had come home and told stories about his trip to Somalia. No stone was left unturned and as we shook hands back stage, I could only wonder how so much energy, consciousness, anger, wisdom, despair, hope and pain could emit from this humble being. Then it all made sense, it could be so because he was hip hop.
The Trinity International Hip Hop Festival was an amazing display of hip hop from roots to wings, from Kool Herc to K’naan. It proved yet again that there is another side of hip hop apart from what the mainstream radio stations or television release to the public. The festival allowed for a 2-day long breath of free fresh air for anyone in the area, or those willing to travel. However, for others, like Trinity College’s own Prafet 1 (a writer and producer) the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival was a life changing experience. Prafet 1 described the festival as “a fat rhyme over a tight beat” however it proved to be more than that. Prafet 1 came to Trinity to attend last year’s festival and enjoyed it so much that he decided to return, only this time, he came as a student. As Ben Herson spoke of this year’s festival, he stated that the hundreds in attendance were the largest crowd they have ever had. I can only imagine what the crowd will swell to in the years to come.
You might also like
|
|
|
|
