Hip Hop Congress

The international hip-hop network, which began at USC in 2001, will start to offer workshops this year.

Stephanie Samuelson

Issue date: 9/8/05 Section: News

In an attempt to get more students involved and teach about the positive powers of hip-hop, the USC chapter of the Hip Hop Congress will host a series of break dancing, rapping, graffiti and DJ workshops for the first time this semester.Since beginning at USC in 2001, the international grassroots network connects hip-hoppers across the nation and has 30 chapters on school campuses.

The main goals of the Hip Hop Congress are to educate, network artists and increase activism, said Aaron Berkowitz, public relations chair of the Hip Hop Congress Steering Committee.

“It’s an organization of like-minded individuals who love hip-hop,” said USC Chapter President, junior Anthony Andrade. The culturally diverse USC chapter has around 20 active members.

But Andrade said that increasing those numbers has been difficult. To involve the rest of the campus, the USC chapter is working on events such as a USC vs. UCLA emcee battle during the week of the USC vs. UCLA football game.

There will also be bimonthly meetings to discuss how news events shape the hip-hop world and workshops featuring Hip Hop Congress artists and affiliates. Performers will exhibit their skills in the four main elements: break dancing, graffiti, DJ and rapping.

Hip-hop began as a cultural movement among black youths in the 1970s to highlight social problems in urban New York.

But now, hip-hop is identified mainly in commercial rapping that exploits stereotypes of violence and misogyny, Berkowitz said.

The USC chapter hopes that its new programs this semester will help to change these generalizations.

“(The workshops) show people how to use hip-hop as an instructional method to talk about anything,” said former USC Chapter President Rahman Jamaal, a hip-hop artist and USC alumnus.

Hip-hop is a medium that allows people to voice their own opinions.

“You don’t want to preach to someone. You want to make it creative,” Andrade said. “Hip-hop breaks down social barriers at USC.”

But for the past 30 years, the same social issues of poverty, crime and education have been rapped about over and over again, Andrade said.

“It’s time for all of us who participate in hip-hop to understand what hip-hop means to the world,” he said. “Hip-hop has an obligation to alleviate problems in society.”

And in a time when rap artist Jay-Z rhymes I dumb down for my audience/ And double up my dollars, Andrade said the Hip Hop Congress is searching for a balance between progressive hip-hop and maintaining ideals of hip-hop’s roots.

The USC’s chapter will hold its first meeting Thursday, Sept. 8 and will meet every other Thursday for the rest of the semester. The first meeting will open a forum for discussion on what hip-hop should do for Hurricane Katrina.