I didn’t get a chance to peep out the first day of the conference, which was on Friday May 14th. Here they had Fab 5 Freddy give the keynote address. They also put forth a couple of panels including one that dealt with Hip Hop films entitled ‘In Vision’ and the other which dealt with the way Hip Hop artist outside the United States reflect the culture. Folks like Ice T and graffiti artist Mare sat on the In Vision panel while author S.H. Fernando and Senegalese recording artist Mbacke Dioum sat on the Flip The Script Panel.

The panels that were held on Saturday may 15th appeared to be off the hook. I caught the tail end of the Ladies First panel which featured Asia of The Rock Steady Crew, Graf writer Lady Pink, Big Lez of BET’s Rap City, Karen Good of Honey and Vibe Magazine and Medusa who has got to be one of the dopest Hip Hop artists around.. Let me be the first to warn you-If you happen to be doing a show and Medusa is on the bill, do what ever you can so you don’t have to follow her. Trust me, you will get your feelings hurt. That woman has mad skillz and is dope.

The panel I moderated was entitled Chips, Cheddar and Cream and it dealt with the whole concept of Hip Hoppers getting paid yet being able to keep it real. We tried to see where Hip Hop values and our desire to get paid contradicted each other. Generally speaking you have a clash of cultures. You have a Business culture that brings to the table a set of rules and customs and you have Hip Hop and artistic culture that is often times about the business of self expression. At the end of the day what you often have happening is hungry artist getting exploited by hungry business people. The panel included, Ras Kass, Hodari Davis of Hip Hop Sate and Berkeley High, community activist and poet Kamau Daaood, graf writer Spie, Kierna Mayo who is the editor and chief of Honey Magazine and George Lipsitz who is a teacher of ethnic studies. This panel was basically continued on with the closing discussion entitled ‘Fight the Power’ which focused on Hip Hop activism. Included on that discussion was Boots of The Coup, Ben Caldwell of Project Blowed, KE T editor and chief of Stress Magazine, Jasmin Baker who is a Youth organizer and Frank Sosa who just released the Mumia Project CD.

Overall the conference was impressive. The organizers took great pains not to make it a circus. They eliminated vendors who wanted to roll through and toss up flyers and hand out tapes. Instead they focused on discussions and ways in which people could build upon Hip Hop. They also took great pains to make sure that all 4 elements were always represented on the panels. It was good to see and hear from the graf writers and break dancers. Oftentimes they are left out of the discussion. Also this conference had a great cross section of community and students. It wasn’t an elitist type of event where folks were sitting in a room theorizing about Hip Hop. This was the type of setting where folks are out there actually doing some major work. Also it was free to the public. It was great to see community elders like ethnomusicology professor Cheryl Keyes who sat on the Flip the Script panel, Kamau Daaood and George Lipsitz who sat on my panel. Hip Hop has often suffered with a generation gap. We don’t often get to hear and benefit from the wisdom of our elders. Such was not the case at UCLA.

Again, I can only reiterate that I think more Hip Hop conferences should be done on University settings. Nowadays Hip Hop conferences have become big money making showcasing themes that are dictated by the music industry. Lets be honest a lot of good stimulating discussions, networking and building are overlooked. Not to dis, but all I’m hearing about the recently held Impact convention is how much of a party it was… As Hip Hop continues to mature we have to take control and seriously push to make sure it develops in a healthy and impactful way. The key lesson here is for folks to organize locally and think and act globally. Hopefully next year there will be a way for the organizers of The Harvard Next Level Conference and the UCLA event to build together. My hats off to them for a job well done.