Artists Gather From Around the World to Make a Difference Through Hip-Hop

Hartford, Connecticut, March 1, 2008 – Hip hop garnered a lion’s share of negative publicity in 2007 – DJ Drama was arrested for selling mixtapes, Don Imus pointed a finger at hip hop’s misogyny and T.I. was arrested on gun charges – spawning a nationwide dialogue over the future of the culture. But one bright spot was the Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival, now poised for its third annual event on April 4, 5 and 6, 2008, sponsored and hosted by Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. The Trinity Festival is a coming together of artists, activists, pioneers, filmmakers, DJs, graffiti writers, and fans with one thing in common – to make a difference in the world through hip hop.

The first and largest international hip hop festival in the United States, the Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival blends the wisdom of old school pioneers with the passions of hip hop musicians from the far points of the globe. Co-organizer and Trinity College student Zee Santiago said, “This is the first event of its kind that demonstrates how hip hop has become an international culture as well as an accepted academic area of study.”

In past years, Trinity College has played host to hip hop luminaries such as Fab 5 Freddy, Jeff Chang (author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop), Byron Hurt (director of Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes) and Charlie Ahern (director of Wildstyle). The 2008 festival will kick off Friday afternoon with a hip hop theatre performance led by Baba Israel and opening remarks from Trinity College President James F. Jones, Jr., and Dr. Xiangming Chen, the Dean of the Center for Urban and Global Studies. This will be followed by a keynote address from Bakari Kitwana (author of The Hip Hop Generation and Why White Kids Love Hip Hop) entitled “Can Hip Hop Make the Transition from Cultural Movement to Political Power?” Artists scheduled to perform Friday night include Baba Israel (Australia/USA), La Bruja (Puerto Rico), Shokanti with Chachi and crew (Cape Verde), Abyssinian Creole (Seattle), Self-Suffice (Hartford), and a Senegalese “Super Crew” featuring several top Senegalese MCs backed by Nomadic Wax’s African Underground live band. The performances will be hosted by Canadian lyricist Eternia and Blitz the Ambassador (Ghana) backed by DJ Boo (of the Juggaknots).

Saturday’s activities will kick off with a panel discussion about the early years of hip hop with old school pioneers Grandmaster Caz and Tony Tone from the Cold Crush Brothers, Grand Wizard Theodore and DJ Disco Wiz. Pop Master Fabel of the legendary Rock Steady Crew will host a 2-on-2 b-boy battle Saturday afternoon with music provided by DJ Disco Wiz and a $500 prize on the line. West coast crew and Trinity-alums Trust Your Struggle will present a Graffiti Workshop and collaborate with other invited artists to create an all new mural in the center of campus. The Beat Making Workshop will give budding producers tips on how to make hip hop beats led by Connecticut production team Kemistree and Zaquan. Saturday night’s performance schedule includes Zimbabwe Legit (Zimbabwe/USA), The Perceptionists (Mr. Lif & Akrobatik – USA), Sam the Kid (Portugal), Jewish emcee Y-Love (presented by Trinity College’s Hillel House), female super-group Anomolies, spoken word collective iLL-Literacy and Rebel Diaz (Chile/Puerto Rico). Performances will again be hosted by Eternia and Blitz with DJ Boo. On Sunday, hip-hop educator Melissa Noel Green will present “The Art of Rhyme” Workshop. Global hip hop DJs will spin at the “Chill Out Lounge” during the course of all three days culminating with an open mic session for MCs on Sunday afternoon.

The event has elicited an enormous response and has been called “the best of the wave of springtime hip-hop conferences” by highly esteemed journalist Jeff Chang. Trinity College has been described as “a point of renaissance for Hartford” by the Trinity Tripod and the BBC reported that the students and artists involved “truly believe they can change the world through Hip-Hop.” The Trinity Tripod declared it “up to events like the [International Hip-Hop] Festival to pierce through the negative, capitalist-driven image now tagged to the Hip-Hop genre.” XXL magazine wrote of “an event that everyone could relate to, regardless of what country they came from or language they spoke.” Festival Sponsors include Trinity College, Nomadic Wax, The Temple of Hip-Hop Kulture and World Hip Hop Market. The festival will be free and open to the public.

Details and schedule information: http://trinityhiphop.org

A taste of past performances at the Festival:

“Supposedly what I’m supposed to be and what was meant for me
Was told, through the odyssey of my ancestry
But now I choose to separate destiny and heredity and
Bomb everybody’s perception of our identity”
— Karmacy, “Outcasted”

While researching Karmacy, I stumbled upon an issue I was completely unaware of – Indians involved in hip-hop and the notion of “rotten coconuts”. There is a surging population of first-generation Indian Americans whose parents emigrated from India. More and more, the well educated, predominately middle class Indian youth are embracing hip-hop – a black cultural movement – to express themselves and connect with other races.

So where does “rotten coconuts” come in to play? I found a very interesting yet informative blog posting discussing the fruit metaphors used to describe people who are trying to be white – such as “banana” or “coconut”. “Rotten coconuts” is a nickname KB of Karmacy was given during his time as a student at UC Berkeley. It essentially means brown on the outside, black on the inside – an Indian American who lives and breathes the black culture of hip-hop.

Hip-hop groups such as Karmacy are trying to break preconceptions that Indians have to be “Indian” by bringing a new, unique perspective to hip-hop (see above lyrics). And they do. Karmacy’s approach is nothing but innovative. Their Indian heritage is the dominating influence, lending sounds from Bhangra and Hindi Pop. They combine traditional hip-hop beats with South Asian instruments and sounds, and use session musicians instead of samples. But the intermixing of different languages is by far the most exciting aspect of Karmacy’s sound.

Karmacy is a breakthrough fusion hip-hop group comprised of KB, Nimo, Sway and Sammy Chand. They all began as individual artists in the independent hip-hop scene and came together to form Rukus Avenue– an independent record label that gives South Asians a place to showcase their talent. All four members are incredibly talented, well educated and entrepreneurs. Sammy Chand is a respected producer and composer who has written scores for many popular Indian American movies. Nimo writes comics for the popular website Badmash.tv. Karmacy’s music has been featured on many film soundtracks and its video for “Blood Brothers” was the first video to be aired during the launch of MTV Desi. Now lets get to the music…

“Blood Brothers” tells the story of two brothers – one who can’t wait to leave India for the US and one who stays in India to care for their parents. The verses are conversational, switching seamlessly between English and Gujarathi. The song speaks of the struggles, opportunities and consequences immigrants face in coming to America. And it has subtitles.

Next up is “Horizons”, a song that flawlessly blends FIVE languages – English, Spanish, Hindi, Gujarati and Punjabi. I’ll let Nimo explain the song in his own words:

And now, “Horizons”:

I’m going to finish this up with the title track (free mp3!) from Rukus Avenue’s first release – Passage To India – the album that got it all started.

mp3: “Passage to India”

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ANOTHER BONUS: For all you animal lovers, Karmacy partnered with PETA to create an animated music video – promoting the ethical treatment of animals. Check it out here.