Knickie Duchatellier
“Hip Hop is a Revolution” is a event that started at Buffalo State College in 2000 as a way to increase voter turn-out and educate students and members of the Buffalo community about politics, said Eric Walker, one of the co-organizers of the event and a community organizer for PUSH Buffalo.
Educating through hip-hop
Music has always been a successful means of relaying a message and this event has been a good forum for that, said Walker. He and the other founders of the event feel that the popularity of hip-hop helps to spread their message to more people.
“Aside from trying to get kids to come out and vote in their community it has become a forum for local artists to gain exposure about the music they create and put their soul into,” Walker said.
“I look at it as a political hip-hop show,” said Wise Mecca, a Buffalo State College student and artist at Deep Thinka Records, which co-sponsors the event.
This program is one of the forums that lays the foundations for change through music and art, said Mecca. It also allows for more positive hip-hop.
The artist featured in this show rap about political and social issues as opposed to what is now popular on the radio, said Walker.
This year Kush Bhardwaj, a professor at the University at Buffalo hosted and gave out prizes to those who could answered his questions about politics and voter rights. He also spoke about some of the issues that will be of concern to voting students, such as tuition hikes. Bhardwaj is professor of African-American studies at UB, and teaches a course on hip-hop and its effect on social issues.
Changing the idea of hip-hop
Today most hip-hop artists are just out to make money and create an exaggerated life-style that glorifies negative stereotypes of black people, and does not help in the plight of black people, said Mecca.
“When you have people who don’t care about the art form of course you’re going to have B.S. product,” said Smith, the vice president of Native America Student Organization at Buffalo State College. He also performed at the event.
Events such as “Hip Hop is a Revolution” helps give hip-hop back to the people in uplifting their consciousness about social issues, he said.
Sponsors
“Hip Hop is a Revolution” has frequently been held on the Buffalo State College campus, and from its start in 2000 has been sponsored by student organizations such as:
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