Last Friday at Hart House, a panel of four well-known hip-hop experts gathered for Crossing Cultures: A Forum On Blacks and Asians in Hip Hop. The event was sponsored by the Black Students’ Association, the Korean Canadian U of T Association, and Hip Hop Headz in order to integrate other cultures into Black History Month.
The discussion began with the panelists relating their experiences with hip-hop as a force that crosses cultural divides.
“Hip-hop is a universal language,” said Subliminal, an alumnus of U of T’s architecture program and a Canadian beatboxer. He spoke of his travels in France, where he jammed for hours with a group of breakers he met on a beach despite the fact that they couldn’t speak one another’s languages. “When I was in Europe I couldn’t understand what they were saying,” said Subliminal. “But I was looking for inflections, for energy.”
Celine Wong, a journalist who has written about hip-hop for such magazines as Eye and The Source, talked about what it was like being an Asian woman within the scene.
“It’s always about skill,” said Wong, “whether you’re Breaking, DJing, MCing or Graffing.” Wong said that on the hip-hop scene, ability is more essential to garnering respect than gender or background.
“It’s a way to release struggle,” said DJ Bowza, who hosts the show Back Road Radio on York University’s station CHRY 105.5 FM. “All over the world, people find a release through hip-hop”.
Will Strickland dominated the discussion, however, proving his reputation as “the walking dictionary of hip-hop.”
“Hip-hop is a culture,” said Strickland. “It’s the only culture in the world that unifies by default. It has an aesthetic attraction…. When it unifies by default, it doesn’t matter your race, religion, or creed.”
The event finished with a silent auction for graffiti and collage art pieces by graf artists Sparrow, Sight, and Matter. There were also performances by Subliminal, MC Prizm, Logikal Ethiks and Bobby Drake. Finally DJ Bowza dropped tunes while some U of T breakers hit the floor.
