Pico Youth & Family Center officials hope to raise $35,000
SAMOHI Hip hop just hasn’t been the same.
Today, the genre is being mischaracterized as a music of sex, violence and drugs with rap artists rhyming about shooting their enemies and sleeping with “hos.”
Vowing to bring hip hop back to the people, the Pico Youth & Family Center (PYFC) will host the first Hip Hop Unity Summit at Samohi today to raise funds for the non-profit organization while paying homage to the nonviolent roots of the popular musical genre.
“The idea is to present the positive aspects of hip hop culture and to really resurrect hip hop culture,” said Pico Youth & Family Center Founder Oscar de la Torre. “It has been commercialized and corrupted by money interests who found that promoting violence sells records.”
The Pico Youth & Family Center claims to be one of the few youth organizations in the county that has been able to effectively integrate hip hop into its programming, focusing on the culture’s four dominant elements — DJ’ing, emceeing, break dancing and graffiti art. The center recently produced its first compilation CD of 20 songs by artists from the around the Westside. The songs helped spread the center’s philosophy of promoting peace, unity and social justice, de la Torre said.
There is a misconception that everything heard on urban radio stations like Power 106 is hip hop when in fact, it’s not, said Alex Aldana, one of the coordinators for the event and an outreach specialist at the PYFC. What is heard on those radio stations that claim to play hip hop is actually a commercialized version of the genre, he said.
Hip hop started as an empowerment tool for youth in the community and as an alternative to violence, he said.
“There was friendly competition through break dancing,” he said. “It was able to quell violence.”
The summit will start at 10 a.m. with a conference featuring a presentation by Leila Steinberg who was the first manager for the late Tupac Shakur. She will talk about her experiences working with someone who began as an up and coming rapper. She will also touch on a new program she started to help prisoners at San Quentin State Prison heal various emotional wounds through a hip hop heavy curriculum.
The early portion of the event will feature workshops and panel discussions covering topics including women’s role in hip hop, using hip hop as a means to teach nonviolence, and hip hop as a form of expression for low-income communities.
Musical acts take over from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. with performances by Aceyalone, Medusa and the legendary KRS-One.
Deejays, break dancers and spray can muralists will also be featured during the show.
The summit is expected to draw between 1,500 to 2,000 people during the course of the 10-hour event. The goal is to raise $35,000 for the PYFC to make up for an expected deficit during the coming fiscal year due to anticipated cuts in funding.
The Hip Hop Unity Summit is a collaborative effort of the PYFC and several local organizations and individuals including SPA 5, a local public health agency. “The idea of the unity summit is to bring everyone together to the table... to create peace,” said Ileana Abreau, community organizer for SPA 5.
The past few years in Santa Monica have seen at least two youths fall prey to gang violence. There has also been considerable racial tensions between Latino and African- American students at Santa Monica High School recently.
There is a desire among city officials to keep the problems of violence and inequality “hush hush” and under the radar, Abreau said. That is why events like the Hip Hop Unity Summit are so important.
“The city has a great image and a lot of beauty. There’s no denying that,”she said.“But there is inequality and there is poverty and there is prejudice and that is difficult for any city to address and in keeping with the good image that Santa Monica has,and rightfully so, they don’t always look for this dialogue.”
As a youth growing up in Santa Monica, de la Torre remembers when hip hop first emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s when he saw kids break dancing in New York City. Hip hop fever quickly spread among the youth in Santa Monica.
“We got caught with that,” he said. “All of a sudden there was an alternative to gangs. You can be cool being a B-Boy instead of being a cholo or a gangster.”
“That positive alternative is what has been lost,” he said.
For more information, visit the event’s MySpace page at myspace.com/onenation-hiphopsummit.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 31, 2007. Read the original PDF.