France goes to Hip-Hop International World Championship + Interview with Vicelow
At the end of July, France will be represented for the first time at the Hip-Hop International World Championship in Las Vegas. The three French dance crews to go to the U.S. (categorized by age group: Junior (7-12) Varsity (12-18) and Adult (18+)) were selected at the Hip-Hop International France Championship held at the Casino de Paris this past May. Despite being the first year for the French tournament, all of the competing crews were really strong and the event was a huge success thanks to passionate dancers, a great audience and a lot of hard work put in by the HHIF organizers Jean Pierre Chandler and Sabrina Bouhanik. During the competition, I interviewed J.P. and Sabrina backstage about the challenges of putting together the event and what lessons and opportunities HHIF has to offer young people in France. You can check out a portion of our interview above.
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48 Hours of Hip-Hop at Goom Radio
Recently, Goom Radio— a 100% digital radio station that is taking storm in France and coming soon to New York— ran a continuous 48 hour episode of it’s hip-hop radio show “Explicit Content,” featuring the biggest artists in French hip-hop, rap and R’n’B. While I wasn’t able to compete with the various radio hosts who stayed up for nearly two full days (breaking for a few hours here and there to sleep and shower), in just the 11 hours that I spent at the station, I got to hang out with some of the top names in the industry, including: Oxmo Puccino, Disiz, Leslie, Seth Gueko, Orelsan, LIM, Youssoupha, Dragon Davy, Mr. Toma, Black Barbie and Kamnouze among others. On top of that, many of the Goom radio hosts are also important figures on the French hip-hop scene, including rappers Freeman (formerly of IAM), Sonikem and Driver, and female hip-hop journalist Valou.
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Happy New Year!
Thursday kicked off Auckland’s celebration of Matariki, the Māori New Year. Matariki is marked by the appearance of a star cluster in the sky known as Pleiades. It is a time to reflect on the past and plan for the future, and its celebration is closely tied to an appreciation of this land, the arts and especially music.
On Friday night, I attended Native Noise 2009 at Auckland Town Hall (Native Noise may sound familiar, as they also sponsored the Waitangi Day concert I attended back in February). This was an awesome concert featuring DJ Poroufessor, reggae bands Katchafire, Three Houses Down and Cornerstone Roots, and headliner Tiki Taane, who performed with a kapa haka group and an incredible DJ, Charlie B. There was also a respectful playing of Michael Jackson hits between sets, a subtle tribute to the passing of an undeniably significant figure to musicians around the world. Nearly every artist greeted the crowd with a warm “Kia ora, whanau”, and the crowd reacted to each performer with generous applause and support. Although the Matariki celebration extends for nearly a month, in the spirit of a new year’s celebration there was a countdown, followed by shouting, hugs and kisses among concert attendees. While I hoped to show some pictures and video, the concert was considered a “taonga”, or treasure to be shared between the performers and the audience, and cameras and recordings were discouraged.
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The Grand Tour
For my final post, Iʼll leave you with this audio flipbook that sums up my year. In previous posts, I tried to explore the diversity of Mexican music by zooming in on individual sounds and people. I wanted to compare a variety of styles (Mariachi, Son Jarocho, Danzón, Villancicos, La Chilena, Son Huasteco, and Tropical were just a few that I got hooked on), while also considering how this music has been affected by emerging issues in Mexico, like emigration, urbanization, and the cultural gap between generations.
This audio flipbook takes a wider view. I hope it lives up to its name—Itʼs a “grand tour” of the School of Mexican Music, classroom by classroom, genre by genre. For the musician in me, traveling from one “room” of Mexican music to another over the course of this year was an awe-inspiring lesson in new sounds. But more importantly, it gave me a taste of the complexity of Mexican history. And every day, Iʼm happy to report, that history is still being sung and played out by young people who want to live in a 21st century Mexico that doesnʼt forget where it came from.
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Makin’ Beats and Breakin’ it Down!
Youth participating in the “Back to School Breakdance Challenge"
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