As many of you know, Students 4 Hip-Hop was lucky enough to bring the Hip-Hop Film Festival to Cal this year, and offer ya’ll an opportunity to see some of the most powerful and innovative underground hip-hop films that have premiered within the last few years….and we only charged a dollar per screening session! But for those of you who chose to sleep on it, here is a rough overview of how it all went down. I don’t claim to have caught every word and I certainly can’t convey the raw emotion and intensely ‘real’ vibe that was felt in the room on all three nights by typing keys on this here computer, but what can I say…you snooze, you lose!

We jump started the first night of the festival by screening Chuck D and Public Enemy’s documentary Digitize or Die, produced by Lathan Hodge, which focuses on the legendary rap group’s advocacy for file-sharing and the reasons for their support. This was followed by another enlightening film that also focused on the conflict between hip-hop music and the big business that unfortunately controls it, this time focusing on the fight for fair radio play. The film, Radio Politics, was directed by Raheem Pierre who was kind enough to join us for the event and share his thoughts on music in the media during the following panel discussion.

Raheem was joined on the panel discussion, facilitated by Bay View newspaper’s own JR, by cats such as Paris (album: Sonic Jihad), Kevin Epps (dir.Straight Outta Hunters Point), Don Williams (dir.World Famous), and Rashida Jordan and Apollonia (writers for Bay View).
JR asked the panel general questions about their individual thoughts on: The importance of the media? The importance of writing/literacy? The difference between today’s media and that of ‘pre’hip-hop? He continued by asking what effects mainstream media has on society and social change, at which point Paris answered with a few words of wisdom:

Paris- Media defines our culture, and in that realm music is very influential; lyrics are memorized but school work don’t get done. I will “play the game” with Clear Channel to get my message out there (played on commercial TV/radio). It’s important to understand that this is a business, not a hobby. The media is placed to keep you in a particular mind frame and all that ‘big labels’ are concerned with is commerce, not art, so you can’t look to them as your allies. We need to support the internet and bring an end to the ‘digital divide’; a lot of progressive hip-hop artists cannot be heard on radio and television and so we must use downloadable music for its accessibility. The newspaper is also a necessary tool. The media jumps on whatever sells, whatever the dominant culture says is cool. If we can control that, we win.

JR- What is the effect of talk radio and why should there be more?

Rashida- Gentrification and many of the horrible murders that are happening in our communities are not getting any radio attention. On The Block Report, hosted by JR on KPFA radio, we do stuff like interviews with Fred Hampton, Jr.

JR- Where do you see the movement in media (Bay Area) in 5 years?

Panel- 1.Underground Bay Area is “New Hollywood”;2. Be careful of ClearChannel;3. Greater rejection of all that is corporate; 4. Hopefully a younger media!

Last words of advice were: Seek out what’s independent…

The festival continued with the screening of Resistencia: Hip-Hop in Colombia, directed by Tom Feiling, a film that follows some of Colombia’s most established rap groups, DJs, and breakdancers over a summer and asks them about their thoughts on their country’s long going civil war and their use of hip-hop to express such feelings. Dr. Ganja and Al Roc of the Asilo ’38 crew express their frustrations about the state of their country, which basically tells them “…if you fight for your rights, you’re a criminal. And if you try to protect your land and family, you’re a terrorist.” They discuss the oppositions of the paramilitaries and the guerillas, the involvement of the U.S. government to protect Colombia’s narcotics production, and how the death of Pablo Escobar left them worse off, despite what the media claims. They also explain that their lack of good DJs is a direct result of their poverty because turntables and records are too expensive and their technology is out of date. Even spray cans for graffiti are costly, which is why MCing is their most powerful element, “it comes right from the head”. Colombia also has some of the most skilled bboys in the world who are featured in the film bustin’ sick moves. Colombia native and resident, DJ Fresh, explains that the reason why hip-hop is so expressive for Colombian youth is because it represents “the physical(bboying), the visual(graffiti), the musical(DJing), and the vocal(MCing).” Its message is exactly what they’ve been feeling for years; as they say, “It’s nothing new, it comes from our past.” Basically their message was that “Plan Colombia” sucks, hip-hop is tight, and all they want is unity.
I recommend seeing this flick not only for its educational view on the state of just one of the many foreign countries that is suffering while we profit, but also to hear the incredible rhyme that some little girl in the film busts in Spanish(SO FRESH!!!)

This powerful documentary was a hard act to follow, which is why I think the film festival coordinators knew it was time to bring out the big guns with a look into the Bay Area’s pride and joy – the creation of The Wake-Up Show (The World Famous). When Sway and Tech appeared on the screen, doing an interview for the film’s director, the crowd seemed to scoot up in their seats to make sure they didn’t miss a word of what these hip-hop legends had to say about the founding of the greatest hip-hop radio show of all time. They immediately gave props to some of their influences, heavyweights such as DJ Red Alert and Marley Mal. Sway decided to lay the foundation of the importance of their show and the effect it had on hip-hop’s evolution by declaring that EVERYONE is influenced by hip-hop, no matter how much the government and the corporations try to deny it; everyone supports it. They went on to explain how The Wake-Up Show quickly became the main outlet for the underground, the newest shit. The radio was a vehicle used to put Cali MCs on the globe. But before laying down the show’s accomplishments, the two had to go back and relate how the whole thing got started.

Back in 1989, after having been retired for some time, DJ Tech entered a San Francisco DJ battle after only three weeks of practice, and won. The prize was $1,000 and a chance to mix on KMEL. He had hooked up with Sway and the two walked into the station knowing that they had nothing to lose; if disrespected, they would walk right back out. Tech took a chance and began playing stuff that people weren’t used to hearing on the radio. As an old school bboy, he owned quite a bit of break beat records and underground flavor controlled the theme of his time on the air. People dug it, and before they knew it Sway and Tech were expanding their audience, first to L.A. and gradually moving nationwide. The corporate owners were taking all the money and they were basically working for free, just for the love of it, while the suits got paid.

As the show continued to drop world premiere hits and Sway and Tech continued to expose hip-hop greats such as Tupac and Eminem in their struggle to come up in the game, the two eventually got the recognition they deserved and went on to do even bigger things. This documentary really skools folks on the importance of this groundbreaking radio program in the advancement of hip-hop as a respected culture. Director Don Williams says he condensed three years of film during four months of editing all by himself. Graduating in 2003 from the Academy of Arts in San Francisco with a masters in film, Williams says we can expect to see more big things to drop in the future, including Hip-Hop Phone Sex and The World Famous Wake-Up Show: Part II, not to mention footage from his interview with Biggie, which happened to be the last before his death, that he has been waiting to release with Puffy’s approval.

The festival didn’t stop there but continued with a hilarious inside look at the life of Fatlip formerly of the Pharcyde and a short documentary on Crutch, the highly inspiring bboy with permanent leg disabilities. For anyone who was unable to make it to the festival, it would be worth surfing the web to find out how you could cop some of these films for your personal hip-hop film collection. Students 4 Hip-Hop would have loved to seen ya’ll there, but don’t fret; you know we got big things lined up for you in the spring semester. For more information on how to get involved and really make shit happen, come check us out at the start of the new year at our weekly Thursday meetings, 7p in Dwinelle (usually room 242, but who knows what we’ll get stuck with next semester) or just hit us up on the website, calhiphop.com, where you can read about previous events, check out flicks, or drop a line on the message board. Alright ya’ll, I’m out, peace and much love in the New Year, and remember… “Ain’t no half-steppin’!”

Film Fest recap:. Album Reviews:. Hip Hop Horroscope:.