On Dec. 27, the Webbs presented the first summit on the topic “50 Years of Hip Hop: Where Do We Go From Here” at New Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church.
“They had two youth groups there and our panel expanded from youth to the elders,” Jay said. “It was a nice age range, so people got to learn from the younger and the older people. It was a packed house and a lot of people got to learn a lot they didn’t know about hip-hop. It was such a great experience being able to give our presentation in a room full of people with such a wide, diverse age rage. Everybody really learned something.”
A second helping
The first summit went so well the Webbs were encouraged to make this an ongoing series. Now they are back with a second installment of Hip Hop With Us for Black History Month.
“This will be similar to the first one we did,” Jay said. “We’ll still be talking about hip-hop, but we expanded it to three different panels. We’ll have an all-women’s panel for one session. We’ll also have the youth all together for one session. Then we’ll have a session with people that are beyond rap. People that work in finance and people that are social justice warriors. They’ll talk about things like how we can use hip-hop in our everyday lives beyond just rap music.”
The second hip-hop summit is presented on behalf of the Dayton Africana Elders Council and features three panels, vendors and food trucks. Panel discussion one features rappers Jonathan “Boogie Woods” Johnson, Tyrant and Montana. The second panel has local entrepreneurs C-Lock and PNut Johnson and activists Steven Muhammad and Jovan Webster. The third panel features Audra D. the Poetess, rapper and health and wellness coach 2FlySonik and hip-hop enthusiasts Antwonett Richie and Cheana Hickman.
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
New voices
“We’re adding more flavor to the panels,” Jay said. “There was a lack of women’s voices the first time. Even though Ladi Bounce DJ’d and spoke about issues with women, people said they would’ve like to have seen more women involved so we’ll have an all-women’s panel for one session. For the youth, we brought back Boogie Woods and we’ve got Montana and Tyrant, two young artists we recently met.
“For the Beyond Hip Hop, we have C-Lock, who owns Locked Loaded Fish Fry, and Pnut, who owns and operates Dash Resource,” Jay continued. “They’re both a quarter of Official Network and Chill, an organization that helps businesses go all the way from their business plan to actually getting funding. We also have social justice warriors Steven Muhammad and Juvan Webster, who do a lot of work in the community. We have people who can talk about different things.”
Beyond the panels
Ladi Bounce, who DJs the third Wednesday of each month at Taste of Jamaica and the third Friday at Barrel House, will play music throughout the program.
“I’ll be DJing at the beginning,” she said. “We’ve got intro songs for the panels. We did that before and we’re going to let people shop during the intermission. As we switch out the panels, people will be able to shop. I’ll be spinning while they shop and then we’ll do the next panel. We’ll have a couple of vendors and some food trucks. All the vendors have agreed to give a donation to Dayton Africana Elders Council.
“For the people that weren’t at the first one, we put a QR code on every program we hand out,” Nikki added. “If you scan that it takes you to a video of the first one. These summits are about hip-hop and the community. This is part of a selfcare journey. We called the event Hip Hop With Us. We went from Fly With Us to that so come along with us on this journey. I think this is going to be great.”
A third hip-hop summit will tentatively take place this summer.
“We don’t have enough conversations about hip-hop, not just the music of hip-hop but the other things involved in hip-hop,” Jay said. “We want people to be aware of these things, so we’re excited about being able to continue those discussions.”
Contact this contributing writer at 937-287-6139 or donthrasher100@gmail.com.
How to go
What: “Hip Hop with Us II” presented by Fly With Us Podcast on behalf of Dayton Africana Elders Council
Where: Dayton Metro Library West Branch, 300 Abbey Ave., Dayton
When: 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17
Cost: Free
More info: 937-463-2665
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