HIP HOP SUMMIT 2005

THE BACKGROUND:

Using of Hip-Hop as a communication tool, the UN-HABITAT , through the “Messengers of Truth Project”, and in association with Native Rhythms Productions are organising the African Global Hip-Hop Summit and Concert for Youth under Siege, scheduled to take place on October 20th – 23rd , 2005 in South Africa . The Hip-Hop Summit and Concert is a regional follow-up to the first Global Hip-Hop Summit and Concert held during the 2nd World Urban Forum in Barcelona in September 2004.

OCTOBER 20TH - 23RD, 2005 - JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

The Summit and Concert forms part of the UN-Habitat and Hip-Hop Artist's ongoing efforts in mobilizing and supporting youth groups to help inform and empower disenfranchised urban youth on the Millennium Development Goals. The summit will help raise awareness and funding needed in support of local youth development initiatives which include:

• reducing abject poverty and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS by half by 2015,
• promoting universal access and awareness to health and education,
• empowering the youth and creating young entrepreneurs
• improving the living conditions of at least 300 million slum dwellers by 2020

The Summit and Concert will feature committed artists from Africa, North and South America, Europe and Asia, and it is envisaged that more than 40, 000 people will attend the concert. The artists have been chosen based on their commercial success as well as their dedication to community/social upliftment and youth development projects and have been selected from the following regions:

- USA and Canada = 3 artists
- East Africa = 2 artists
- West Africa = 2 artists
- Southern Africa = 3 artists
- Rest of the World = 3 artists

THE LOWDOWN:

The first African Hip Hop Summit was held right here in Newtown, Johannesburg and yes, Ms. P is part of history! The summit kicked off on Thursday 20 October with speakers from all over the African continent, UN Representatives, some of our Government officials, artists, and Hip Hop Heads and Hip Hop activists. Workshops were held, artists performed, people came through and related their life stories to all who attended and I tell you no lie when I say I had a life altering two days.

Hip Hop is a culture, something you live, a lifestyle. Hip Hop is the DJ, the MC, the B-Boy/Girl, the Graff artist and in my opinion, the business, the fashion, social upliftment and knowledge of self.

I've been a Hip Hop head for the past 10 years. I've grown to understand it better than I understand people; I know my shit. Through the years my love for Hip Hop grew to what it is today, fanatical. If there's one thing I remember most about being a head is other people's negative perceptions or comments about Hip Hop. People who don't understand the first thing about it but always so fucking quick to make fucked up comments about it. Some years ago friends of mine assumed that I had lost my way as a direct result of my love for Hip Hop. Bullshit, I never lost my way Hip Hop showed me the way. I still ask and wonder how do you hate that which you do not know or understand?

For as long as I can remember I believed that Hi p Hop was the way, the only way of ‘saving' the world. Imagine it, politicians, corporates, everybody as a Hip Hop head, I see world peace, I see the end of diseases that plague our people, I see the end of social prejudices, social hierarchies, social injustices as a whole. So that's the ideal situation, what's the reality?

Our reality, and I'm talking about the young black reality, is poverty-relative or absolute, our reality is starvation, Aids and other third world diseases, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, violent crimes, unemployment, unrealized potential and dreams, laziness, exploitation, lack of accessible knowledge, abuse of our women and children, in fact in my mind's eye I see that young black brothers and sisters are at the bottom of the world food chain! That is our reality.

Fact: Hip Hop has saved many black minds from these negative external forces that plague us. The real Hip Hop culture has been a crutch when many black souls were leaning towards a fall. Emmanuel Jal was born in Sudan, I hope those who read this know the history of Sudan. Emmanuel was born into an ongoing war between his people and Muslims; you could say the man was born with an AK 47 in his hands. He was taught to hate, he was taught kill and taught anger. In his story he tells us how he starved and almost died as a result of the war in his country, how some of his people would resort to eating people because they were so hungry.

He expresses his past, his life story, and his wishes for Africa in his music. Today he stands tall as a talented and successful MC. He has visited different parts of the world and everywhere he goes his message is one; Africa UNITE!

K'Naan's story is very similar to Emmanuel's even though he comes from Somalia. Somalia's history is the same as every other African history; war. K'Naan was saved by powerful words, words that he put together in his mind. He was lucky enough to move away from the strife in Africa but met the same social prejudice in America. There he learnt the art form of Rap and as he explains it, some of his tightest versus were written in jail. K'Naan's message is for the world to open their eyes and see what colonisation has done to our people; WE ARE STRUGGLING !

Is it not inspiring to see how neither Emmanuel Jal nor K'Naan became violent men, men who hate, men who abuse and kill? Instead both young men have become messengers of LOVE , POSITIVE THOUGHT and SELF-EMPOWERMENT . Rock ‘n' Roll couldn't have done this, Kwaito and House couldn't have done this, it was all Hip Hop!

pro-verb

My favourite saying goes as follows; an idle mind is the devil's playground (I don't know where it's from otherwise I would credit the source-I ain't no biter). Give a kid something to do and that kid will probably not turn towards ‘illegal fun'. In Hip Hop a kid can learn to DJ or break dance and that will occupy his/her mind for a long time. This is what we need. We need to create youth development programmes so we can rehabilitate those young ones who have already offended. We need to educate our people; we need to show our people the different ways of surviving our planet that aren't in direct conflict of the law. We need to invest in our young people's ideas; we need to give them a chance. I believe all of this, I live it and live for it, and my influence comes from HIP HOP.

Corporates don't see it cos Real Hip Hop won't make them top dollars, Government won't see it cos they think we are a bunch of delinquent juveniles, our parents won't see it cos our pants sag too low or the word fuck is in our vocabulary, some of our friends won't see it cos they are probably plagued by the House and Kwaito disease, it's the Heads who will see it. Fuck ‘em, fuck ‘em all, we know what Hip Hop is, we love it, we live it and we know the power it has. Each one of us could probably tell a story about our lives and how Hip Hop saved us (look out for my story).

This article started out as a review on the African Hip Hop Summit, I went off the rail there. Look the Summit was about Hip Hop, it was about everything I've already said, it was about us the Heads, if you didn't go I pity you but stay tuned, keep logging onto the site and you'll have an idea of what went down.

photos by represent.co.za