by Xochitl Campos
Daily Lobo
A group of students is working to bring their vision of hip-hop to the masses.
They are doing it through the Hip Hop Congress, a chartered student branch of an international organization.
It was started to promote hip-hop music, art and dance in a peaceful way, group member Travis Cole said.
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"As a culture, hip-hop is something that is a bit more all-encompassing than just music, and that is why it can act more as a creative outlet than other genres of music," he said. The organization aims to encourage people to improve their community through the elements of hip-hop culture, he said.
"It is more of a culture and lifestyle than just the music that is being produced," he said. "Being able to express yourself creatively and artistically - it's just a positive outlet that helps you build in other ways, as well."
Phillip "Flux" Torres, an MC, said hip-hop is narrowly defined as a genre of music, but there is an entire culture behind the sound.
There are visual and musical artists that work to influence the community in a positive way,
he said.
The birth of a movement
The Congress is a collaboration of the four elements of hip-hop: break dancing, MCing, DJing and graffiti, said Shane Montoya, the club's co-president.
"What we are doing in the organization is coming together and promoting the hip-hop scene on campus in a positive fashion," he said. "Just trying to get people out here and have fun, too."
Montoya, a break-dancer, said hip-hop has always been a positive force in his life.
"Everybody has an outlet, or if they don't, they should find one," he said. "It is a way for us to take whatever is negative in our lives and apply it in our dance."
The main goal of the group is to get involved in community-outreach programs, he said.
Torres said the group strives to bring programs to children in the lower-income communities in Albuquerque.
"One thing that we are interested in is bringing the arts back to the schools and giving the kids the opportunity to release that somehow," he said.
Cole said children in lower-income areas do not get access to art programs in their schools because of monetary cutbacks.
The lack of these programs makes it difficult for a child's creativity to be nurtured, he said.
"There have been a lot of cutbacks pretty recently with these programs," he said. "This will be kind of a way to supplement the lack or the decrease of that in youth art programs or schools."
The group has to fight off negative stereotypes of hip-hop, MC Jeremy "Illson Serif" Wilson said.
"Some people might perceive it like that because of MTV and what they see on mainstream media, but we just do it because we love to do it," he said. "It is a positive thing. It's really influential in our own lives, let alone the people who see the positive that comes out of it."
Montoya said he was introduced to break dancing by his older brother, who learned the art when he was in jail.
Dancing made a positive impact on his brother's life, and it was passed on to him, he said.
"He was really hyped up," he said. "When he got out, he influenced me to dance, and we started dancing together."
Montoya said break dancing gave his brother positive goals.
"In a way, it helped him change his ways, too, because it gave him something different to lead up to," he said. "So it really had a positive effect on his life, and through me watching that. That is kind of how we started dancing. So, out of bad came good."
Potential for social change
The Hip Hop Congress wants to inspire a social movement, Torres said.
He said it is important that children, who are developing their own views and outlooks on the world, are exposed to hip-hop in a positive and constructive way.
"Maybe some of us were fortunate enough to run into some people that were being creative or building in their own way," he said. "We are trying to help people who don't have direction."
Wilson said his life experiences inspire his rhymes.
"It makes me feel free, like I can actually make a difference in the world," he said.
The congress plans to introduce hip-hop to children through community workshops, Cole said.
He said the group will teach workshops on break dancing and other hip-hop elements in community centers, public schools and on the UNM campus.
It's a way he can give back to the community, he said.
"There was no Hip Hop Congress when we were little, but it would have been something that was beautiful," he said. "If there were community centers, we could have gone and learned to paint with a can or on a canvas. It would have helped our development quite a bit."
There is a negative image of graffiti in Albuquerque because the community is unable to accept hip-hop as an art, Wilson said.
"As soon as you hear it, all of a sudden, you think destruction of property," he said. "We can change the name if the city is so scared. We can call it 'aerosol art,' because everybody hates the word 'graffiti.'"
Wilson said artists display their work where it's permissible, but the art form itself is still stigmatized.
There is a big difference between tagging a building and creating a work of art, but few people outside of the hip-hop community know the difference, Torres said.
"Even when they are given a platform that is accepted, the city wants to dispose of it," he said. "There is a lot of stuff that is covered up and buffed out by the graffiti task force."
Graffiti is about the respect an artist has for his art and not just a name on a wall, Torres said.
"Some artists just really don't respect anything, and some do," he said.
Elements coming together
Hip-hop is important because it is a tangible subculture in the music world, MC Nick Meyers said.
"The collective aspect is to say that we are all part of one culture," he said.
Meyers said that as an MC, he has the power to influence people with his words.
"Your responsibility is to yourself," he said. "First, in terms of being proud of the art you create, but also being wholly cognizant of the fact that what you say does affect other people."
The congress will give students the opportunity to learn more about the organization through free workshops and performances on campus, Cole said.
"It's all about building - everybody is not going to be at the same level," he said.
Meyers said the Hip Hop Congress will have a big impact on the UNM campus.
The future of the group is uncertain once the "founding fathers" graduate, Cole said.
But he said one thing is certain: the members of the Hip Hop Congress want to continue revolutionizing the reputation of the culture they love.
