2020: A New Year for Hip-Hop
As the New Year dawns, it seems like a perfect time to ask Next Level alumni about their vision for hip-hop in 2020. What would they like Hip-Hop culture to do? What areas of life do they hope it will explore? What issues would they like hip-hop to address? What do they hope for hip-hop to become in the New Year?
Team Senegal’s Toni Blackman takes stock of the many possibilities that hip-hop offers. “Wouldn't it be nice if Hip Hop took a real stance on poverty versus celebrating consumption?” She asks. “Wouldn't it be nice if every Hip Hop artist, DJ, or dancer created work that spoke on the environment and climate change?”
“I love the moments of authenticity where artists are willing to be brutally honest either in their work or in interviews,” she continues. “Wouldn't it be nice if Hip Hop took an even deeper dive into vulnerable expression about pain, overcoming mental struggles and toxic people and relationships? Wouldn't it be nice if a group of men in Hip Hop owned up to the way women are not only treated but the way they perceive women and talk about women?”
Team India’s Purple Haze also advocates a more introspective and responsible Hip-Hop culture. “I would like Hip Hop to continue to grow in being accountable and a powerful influence. I’d like a restorative movement. For artists to disrupt labels funding messages that are becoming obvious to those who narrate death and addiction culture. “
For team El Salvador’s Danny Rodriguez, mentoring is one of the key tools for achieving these goals. “I would like to see more of us teaching in schools. I would like to see more of us thinking of ways to infiltrate schools to teach the next generation of artists. I would like to see more of us come into administrative positions to get the funds needed to pay more of us student educators to come into the schools and teach hip hop culture. I would like to see more of us teaching in after school programs, community centers, boys and girls club, churches, and any other institutions that we have access to. What we do at Next Level and abroad should reflect what we are doing in our own communities.”
And, as Purple Haze points out, mentoring is not just for youth. “I wish for folks that appeal to the masses to be mentored. For all subcultures of American Hip Hop to go hard to learn, be open and inspired by what it looks like overseas and underground. Be influenced and exchange to grow up like we ‘bout to be fitty!”
Team Senegal’s Elliot Gann - who is both a hip-hop producer and a clinical psychologist - suggests that this level of personal growth can go beyond general moral support and into actual clinical environments as well. “I wish for hip-hop to be used in more therapeutic settings and capacities,” he says.
An important part of that effort, as Purple Haze notes, is to create social and physical spaces where this work can happen. “I want Hip Hop to have a gravitational pull and be accessible around the way! Like, ‘buy, live, eat, work and play local.’ I want live Hip Hop venues to spread love and liken to spoken word/karaoke/neo-soul performance wave: local lounges with an intimate feel. I want small venues that are especially for Hip Hop all over the place.”
Of course, it takes more than just space to build this kind of community; it also requires a commitment to collaboration. Team Croatia’s Asia One says, “In 2020, I wish Hip-Hop would work more collectively. Hip-Hop has always been a competitive spirit and we used to compete against each other for things like how large and successful our events would be - things like that, which are really stupid.”
“And now more than ever, it’s going to take the community to address a lot of issues that we have in the world. In 2020, I would love to see Hip-Hop work collectively to help eradicate homelessness. In 2020, it would be great if we could see people working collectively to engage elders in regional communities to be a part of that regional scene and teach young people in those areas the history of that particular community. That way older b-boys, b-girls, DJs, graffiti artists and emcees could feel more a part of what’s going on now. In 2020 it would be great to have Hip-Hop explore more and see how it helps things like a mental illness.”
Team Uganda’s Suzi Analogue, who has returned to Africa several times since her NL experience and continues to work with artists that she met there, also advocates a renewed emphasis on collaboration, not just for personal growth, but for economic success as well.
“I would love to see hip-hop become more commercially collaborative across the globe,” she says. “Over the last couple years, the reggaeton and "Afrobeats" (not really my choice of blanketed term) has shown how unifying different hip-hop rhythms can be and I want to see that continue to break through with artists collaborating with others in their native language and having the records become widely popular.”
In the end, says Team Thailand’s Dumi RIGHT, it’s about continuing to move forward. “I want hip hop to be more and more innovative in the New Year and beyond. The art form was invented through innovation and making something out of nothing. Now that we have unlimited resources and technological advancement, I am looking forward to the next phase where we change the creation, consumption and presentation of music. To remain at the forefront as the culture is globally, we need to not settle into familiar patterns or follow industry trends.”
“Industry trends should follow us, the originators and innovators.”