Hip-hop is an often misunderstood cultural phenomenon. Much of what we know about it is an incomplete picture strung together from two-second break-dancing clips on Coca Cola commercials, or the watered-down MC battles on 106 and Park or Much Music. But these two-dimensional images are only half-truths, catering to a society obsessed with its exotic elements like a kind of ghetto Orientalism to borrow a word from Edward Said.
But hip-hop was not meant to be commoditised so it could be bought and sold in pieces—it’s for everyone to be able to experience freely, as a whole.
“I think a lot of people have this conception of hip hop that is completely skewed by what they see on TV,” says Daniel Farb, President of U of T’s Hip Hop Headz, a studentrun organization promoting aspects of the culture often unnoticed by mainstream audiences. “They think it’s all about guns, ho’s, cars, and gang wars, which usually prejudices them against it. But in reality hiphop really has nothing to do with any of these things, and is really the antithesis to all of that.”
So what is hip-hop?
“At its essence it’s an art form, a mode of expression for people who didn’t necessarily have a voice before,” Farb continues, “Basically it can be broken down into four main elements: emceeing or rapping, DJing, graffiti, and b-boying or break-dancing.” Farb, himself a local rapper under the name MC FUBB (pronounced foo-ob), is a strong proponent of all fi ve elements. His organization is heavily involved in promoting the culture and generally educating casual students about its merits. “Basically when the organization started there wasn’t a huge hip-hop presence on campus,” Farb recalls, “There wasn’t a cohesive community promoting hip hop culture, just a bunch of individual ‘Headz’ representing, which is how we got our name in the first place, because we were trying to bring together like-minded individuals.”
But what exactly is a Hip Hop Head?
“A Hip Hop Head is anyone who has their mind on hip hop,” says fellow Head and self proclaimed “hype man” Kaveesh Dissanayaka,
“You don’t necessarily have to be someone in the music industry, you don’t even have to be a DJ or MC, basically if you support hiphop and it’s something that’s part of your life then you’re a Hip Hop Head in some way.”
Hip Hop Headz is one of the 73 campus groups recognized by the Student Affairs Offi ce. The organization is in its fourth year of existence, but has faced signifi cant turnover the past year with the graduation of its former execs. Throughout all these changes, however, their goals and objectives remain the same: to provide a venue within U of T for anyone interested in experiencing the rich and diverse culture that hip hop has to offer. This can sometimes be a dicey proposition on a campus that would much rather “rock out” than top-rock (a form of dance), but in a city as multicultural as Toronto, the group will always have a place in the grander scheme of things.
They were front and centre at this year’s Frosh Week festivities, where they entertained and enticed curious onlookers with music and free pizza. Despite their small numbers and limited financial resources, the group is usually able to generate a lot of positive interest by throwing events such as last year’s Open Mike Night at the Cat’s Eye in Victoria College. It was an event designed to give exposure to up-and-coming rappers and spoken word artists from around the city, and received a very good response from attendees for its relaxed atmosphere, intimate setting, and the talent of some of the artists who performed. Other elements of hip-hop, such as DJ showcases, figure prominently into this year’s schedule, with a Halloween Jam taking place on October 27 at Tangerine Lounge.
First-timers will tell you that these events are very little like what you’d expect from a hip hop event. As Daniel Farb says: “If you go to a hip-hop concert you’re going to see all sorts of different people, different races and creeds, especially in the Toronto scene. It’s very inclusive, and this is the kind of message we want to promote.”
As a grassroots hip-hop organization, Hip Hop Headz could not be further removed from the stock gangster-rapper characters we see in movies and magazines. They are part of a new wave of conscious hip hop, and view themselves as a complex cultural movement rather than just a phase or trend, Farb says.
“There’s more creative power in hip-hop than just in the music, within the culture it can create change as well, positive changes outside in the real world. And that’s part of what we’re trying to perpetuate in Hip Hop Headz… a positive change, so that we can advance the culture. Maybe on the U of T campus there’s not a lot of people who are really into hip-hop. But of those people that are, we want there to be some kind of organization that they can get involved with and express themselves.”
