STATE OF HIPHOP TOWNHALL MEETING

STATE OF HIPHOP TOWNHALL MEETING, Sat., June 7th, New York City

Hiphop Speaks

"The leadership we are waiting for is us" Founded 2001

IN CELEBRATION OF BLACK MUSIC MONTH Hiphop Speaks presents

A TOWNHALL MEETING ON THE STATE OF HIPHOP MUSIC AND CULTURE on Saturday, June 7, 2003 12 Noon-8PM (DOORS OPEN AT 11:30AM) at THE RIVERSIDE CHURCH 490 Riverside Drive between 120th and 122nd Streets New York City (Take Broadway local trains to 116th and Broadway or, if driving, take 125th Street exit off Westside Highway)

Moderated by DAVEY D, www.daveyd.com...the BEST hiphop website on the planet

Panelists....

ELIZABETH MENDES BERRY, Assistant Music Editor, VIBE

TONI BLACKMAN, Emcee, U.S. hiphop ambassador

SWAY CALLOWAY, MTV News reporter/veejay, radio personality

REBECCA FABIANO, Director of After-School in Lincoln Square at Martin Luther King, Jr. High School Campus

BABA ISRAEL, Beatboxer, emcee, and educator at The Door and with Urban Word

DJ KAYSLAY, Legendary graffiti writer formerly known as "Dez," popuar mixtape deejay, Hot 97 radio personality, SONY recording artist

DJ KUTTIN KANDI, Turntablist, member of DJ team champions the 5th Platoon and all female hiphop group Anomolies, and the first female DJ to make it to the DMC USA Finals (1998)

JORGE "FABEL" PABON, Hiphop pioneer, Senior Vice-President, Rock Steady Crew, and hiphop historian

KEVIN POWELL, Community activist, writer, public speaker, and cofounder of Hiphop Speaks

FATIMA ROBINSON, Award-winning hiphop choreographer

ROCAFELLA, Bgirl, choreographer, cofounder of Full Circle Productions

PLUS A Conversation With The Elders....

AFRIKA BAMBAATAA, A founding father of hiphop, creator of the Universal Zulu Nation, and mastermind behind Hiphop History Month (November)

ERNIE PANICCIOLI, legendary hiphop photographer, historian, author of Who Shot Ya? Three Decades of Hiphop Photography (Amistad/HarperCollins)

CAMILLE YARBROUGH, Poetess, soul singer, actress/dancer, award- winning author of four children's books

A Conversation With The Elders will be moderated by THEMBISA MSHAKA, SONY advertising executive, former Gavin Rap Editor, and author of the forthcoming book Handle Your (Music) Business (a resource guide for women in the music industry)

On the 1s and 2s: DJ DRAMA...www.djdrama.net Admission is FREE and seating will be on a first-come first-serve basis.

ABOUT THE TOWNHALL MEETING....

FOR ONCE this will be an all-day forum on hiphop that will include pioneers and new school hiphop heads, all the major elements of hiphop manifested in one way or another, all races/persuasions, women and men, industry insiders and the underground, and the community at-large, both young and not so young.

Topics to be discussed (in no particular order):

1) The blatant hatred and disrespect of women manifested in
hiphop/America today
2)) Hiphop Culture vs. the Hiphop Industry
3) Fighting for control over corporate media's representation of hiphop
4) Anti-rap police task forces and FBI surveillance of the hiphop
community
5) The media blackout and lack of commercial airplay for certain hiphop
artists
6) Historical amnesia: why we do not know hiphop/American/world history?
7) Internal beefs: rappers, radio personalities, magazines, and on and
on....
8) The self-hatred of a generation (where did it come from?)
9) How Bush, the war, and the war on terrorism affect the hiphop
community/America
10) The class divide in hiphop: thugs vs. backpackers, commercial vs.
underground
11) Hiphop activism...using hiphop as a tool for social and political
change

We are clear that hiphop has been the most important artform on the planet during the past 30 years or so. We readily acknowledge the power and influence it has had on young people from all walks of life, from all backgrounds, although we are also clear that hiphop was created by Black and Latino young people in America, particularly those from poor, working-class environments. And while many people are quick to cite the most negative aspects of hiphop, and we MUST be critical of that which is now destroying us, without apologies or moves to protect our personal interests, we also applaud the recent events that reveal another side of hiphop: the 40-plus anti-war hiphop songs now circulating; the 15-plus hiphop-related books that have come out in recent months; the recent Academy Award nominations for Queen Latifah, Eminem, and Adrian Brody (A. Ranger is his hiphop producer moniker); the emergence of hiphop generation leaders like Alabama's Malika Sanders, Philadelphia's Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Newark, NJ Deputy Mayor Ras Baraka or Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick; and so on.

ABOUT Hiphop Speaks

Hiphop Speaks was created by Kevin Powell and April Silver in 2001, and is a series of quarterly forums (March, June, September, and December of each year) geared toward the healthy exchange of social and political ideas related to the hiphop generation/era and beyond (as the rap group Dead Prez has stated, it is bigger than hiphop, after all), and led by voices from the hiphop community. As suggested by hiphop godfather, pioneer, and Universal Zulu Nation founder Afrika Bambaataa, we acknowledge the five primary elements of hiphop culture: djing, mcing, dancing, graffiti writing, and doing the knowledge (know thyself, know history, know hiphop history). With all humility, we would like to add and acknowledge the art of beatboxing as an integral part of hiphop history and culture as well.

INQUIRIES for Hiphop Speaks: 718-399-0695 SPONSORS....

VIBE magazine
SONY Urban Music (SUM)
Webstreaming will be provided by APPLE after the event
GIFTBAGS with magazines, cds, etc., will be given away.

COPIES of....

WHO SHOT YA? Three Decades of Hiphop Photography (Photographs by Ernie Paniccioli, Edited by Kevin Powell), the first major pictorial history of hiphop, WILL BE ON SALE at the event.