What an amazing weekend! We put on the 4th annual Trinity International Hip Hop Festival at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, last weekend with huge success. Although the budget was cut by 20 percent and the schedule shortened from three days to two, it never felt like anything was missing due to the quality events and amazing performances and crowd at the concerts.

This year, more focus was given on tying the festival in with the students and faculty. Friday started off with two classroom events: “Islam, Hip Hop and Gender” with Poetic Pilgrimage (a female Muslim duo from London) and “Hip Hop in China” with Fulbright scholar Angela Steele. Both were smaller events with students being most of the audience, providing a much more intimate opportunity for discussion. Sukina from Poetic Pilgrimage told me that their program went well and that the students were very receptive to what they were saying. Angela Steele said her presentation had few questions but a line of people to ask questions once it was over.

I arrived in time for opening comments by Zee Santiago (the main student organizer) and Ben Herson (Nomadic Wax owner/organizer). We then saw a screening of Fangafrika, a film made over a four year period at the Ouaga Hip Hop Festival in Burkina Faso in west Africa. The film shows a great slice of west African life and how hip hop is really the voice of the young people in countries like Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Benin and Burkina Faso. One of the best scenes was a street side freestyle by Djanta Kan (from Togo). On hand for a question and answer session, the directors Renaud Lioult and Guillaume Mouille explained how the language of the group lends itself exceptionally well to rapping with it’s staccato sound and fast passed delivery. They offered insight into their filmmaking process, why those chose certain parts of the movie, and how many of the artists are helping their communities. Senegalese emcee Baay Musa and filmmaker and Trinity alum Magee McIlvaine also both participated in the discussion, sharing their own knowledge of west African hip hop.

Many of the participants then went to another presentation “Hip Hop, Politics and Freedom of Speech in Zimbabwe” with two Zimbabwean artists, Comrade Fatso and Outspoken. Although I didn’t see this one, I heard it went very well.

The Friday night concert started a little late (9:30) due to heavy rain Friday delaying several of the performers coming into Hartford late. A crowd was slow to gather, but Hot 97.3’s DJ Craig G was spinning a great set of 90s classic hip hop joints which flowed into a “test” where he played classic soul breaks and hip hop songs that used them to see if the crowd could tell if it was the original or sampled.

When Mr. Reo – a Haitian artist living in Brooklyn – and his band took the stage, the crowd was treated to a fantastic show. His infectious energy really set the tone and he was followed up by co-host Princess of Controversy. She played a nice set although few of the college aged crowd knew the female MC classics “Ladies First”, “Paper Thin” and “My Mic Sounds Nice” when she tried to invoke the old school.

Net up was the African Underground All-Stars, a band sponsored by Nomadic Wax, in one of their best performances I have seen. The band typically travels with three MCs from a variety of countries, and what I have seen they each play their songs separately. This trio (Baay Musa of Senegal, co-host Hired Gun and Trinity alum Self-Suffice) stormed that stage together, one rapping while the other two acted as hype men for the crowd. The combination was wonderful and really kept the crowd going.

The two Zimbabwean band played next. First, Outspoken and the Essence (consisting of guitar, bass, drummer and Verity the rockin’ violinist!). Outspoken was a real poet, a fine MC and had a wonderful stage presence. He was followed by Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka (a slightly different band) whose album has been banned in Zimbabwe. Fatso (a very skinny dude) was funny, charming (“yes we live in grass huts and swing with monkeys; we like to reinforce all the stereotypes of Zimbabwe.”)

Afro-punk band Game Rebellion played last on Friday night rocking out hard and inspiring the first ever Trinity festival mosh pit. Readnex Poetry Squad’s Cuttz suffered a twisted ankle while I’m sure I was not the only one worried about the 4-foot-nothing Nomadic Wax intern Melinda insisting on dancing around the center of the pit.

The evening ended with a great freestyle session with nearly all of the emcees taking turns plus special guests like Zee Santiago and Readnex’s Cuttz and Decora on the mic. As the evening wound past the 2:00 am end time, the cipher continued even as the lights were brought up, then the microphones were turned off, then the DJ was shut down (nothing that some human beatbox couldn’t handle) but eventually, the emcees were herded off stage.

Saturday started cloudy with a threat of rain, but everything was set up outside for the day’s events. The start times were pushed back by about an hour or so to let people gather, which ended up working wonderfully.

A lot of local graffiti writers started gathering about 11:00 am at The Cave patio (a basement level café at the Mather Hall student center). As the primed plywood boards were set up for them to paint, the Czech Republic’s beatboxing team champions BeatBurger Band started their beatboxing workshop. With a crowd of 40+ people, they taught basic mouth sounds (and even gave a language lesson as leader Jaro Cossiga demonstrated how the Czech language was more phonetic than English – plus this was the first time for them to give this workshop in English). With great crowd participation, they even brought up some kids to demonstrate and have fun.

At the end, Hired Gun started freestyling with BeatBurger as they transitioned to the freestyle workshop, this time inside The Cave café. With an overhead projector, Hired Gun explained how rhymes were broken down and promised that by the end of the hour, everyone in attendance would be able to do freestyle rhymes (at least simple ones). Perhaps most surprising were the younger kids who shined when brought in front of the group.

Instead of moving people to the Washington Room (where the next panel discussion was originally planned), the panel came to the Cave and a crowd of about 60 people built to listen to three Trinity College professors speak about stereotypes and misconceptions in hip hop. Visiting Assistant Professor of History and International Studies Emily Musil, Associate Professor of Music Gail Woldu and Visiting Lecturer in American Studies Nicholas Conway all teach classes at Trinity involving different aspects of hip hop and commanded an impressive knowledge of hip hop from various points of view.

Meanwhile, my man DJ Sybiro – a Russian DJ who has spent the last few years living in China, Paris and New York – was spinning an hour long set of global hip hop, a smooth mix of French, African and Brazilian beats.

After the panel, the crowd moved upstairs (and grew to about 100 people) to watch a screening of Planet B-Boy. This is truly one of the great hip hop films. Director Benson Lee explores five b-boy crews as they prepare and compete in the Battle of the Year in Germany (a kind of world championship for breakdancing). Not only do we see dancing but also interviews with the dancers’ families and their philosophies on dance, patriotism, politics and family. The crowd loved it.

Directly afterwards, DJ Boo warmed up the crowd as we got into the B-boy battle, the second year of hosting such a battle. Ten crews signed up this year (up from eight last year) with a few returns crews (including Bboy Spye who won last year with Problemz Crew but now was one half of Ill Legal). Self- Suffice was the host and his 7 year old son started things off with a poem he wrote called “Ultraviolet Love”.

The music and pacing of the battle were great and we witnessed some skilled dancers. Betweent he first and secodn rounds, the crowd was entertained by fiery spoken word pieces by Readnex Poetry Squad plus a 12 year old boy with mad knowledge of 80s hip hop fielded trivia questions form the audience and challenged heads to answer his questions.

Unfortunately the event was not without some drama. Two crews in the second round got carried away with their taunting and ended up in a heated argument (it was one of the best battles until the end). Both crews were disqualified leaving the remaining crews in a 3-way battle for the $500 prize. Tig Ol Bitties was the crew that won the title.

By 8:00, people were gathering at Vernon Social Hall for the K’naan concert. A few people were treated to late sound checks by Blitz the Ambassador (Ghana) and BeatBurger Band.

It was the largest crowd ever for a Trinity International Hip Hop Festival concert and they were pumped up to see K’naan. The crowd’s energy filled the concert hall throughout the night, starting with a performance from Mohammed Yahya, a skilled emcee from the United Kingdom. Although he’s been part of several groups, his first solo CD dropped in April 2009 (Beyond Conflict – for sale right here at World Hip Hop Market) and he played several great songs form the album including “W.O.M.B.” – a tribute to mothers featuring a Jewish emcee Danny Silver who came all the way from London to partner with Yahya on this song - and “Half My Deen” a tribute to marriage with some help from Big Samir of the Colorado-based duo The reMINDers.

Next up was BeatBurger Band with another amazing set of team beatboxing. Their set included a “ping pong” game where the band members pass an imaginary melon-sized ball around and use it to form or influence the sounds they make and a “battle” between Johnny Typek and Nasty Industry – moderated by Cossiga – where music styles were called out and they had to beatbox them. Finally they were joined on stage by New York based emcee Farbeon and Hired Gun for songs from Cossiga’s latest album “Hop ‘N Nob” which both emcees feature.

Poetic Pilgrimage was third on stage performing some of their amazing songs such as “Unlikely MC” and “Freedom” plus one new song they had just written the night before! At the end they were joined on stage by Mohamemd Yahya and the reMINDers for a big finale. Truthfully, you have never seen a group like this rock it.

Blitz the Ambassador was one of last year’s festival’s headliners who made such a big splash we had to bring him back again! His live band with a horn section electrified the crowd (with a crazy light show too) as I know he came away with mad new fans. (His album out in June.)

As the band set up, WESU DJ Dope Dave did a short spoken word piece and Hired Gun and Princess of Controversy kept the crowd jumping.

Finally, a little after midnight, K’naan took the stage. He blew up the place with “T.I.A.” followed by “Soobax” then most of the songs off of his Troubadour album. His band – comprised mostly of musicians from Philadelphia for some reason – included a singer and a trumpet player. It was a thrilling performance and the crowd brought him back out for an a cappella encore of “Waving Flag” (where he also shouted down a rude hoodie-clad fan who was talking loudly during his performance).

The band broke down but was followed by a short set by Trinity College’s own Zee Santiago. At 2:00 am, a rude security guard shouted the hosts off stage and Hired Gun called “cipher outside!” It was kind of an abrupt ending to a fantastic festival, but it didn’t dampen the spirits of whose of us present.

I want to thank the Media Sponsors: MyCypher.com, Deft Magazine and Planet Urban (shout out to Australia) for their help promoting and covering the festival. Also thanks to Deft Magazine, and VJnet for the photos above.

You can cehck out video clips from the festival at http://www.worldhiphopmarket.com/blog/?p=661.

Deft Magazine posted over 1,800 photos at http://www.deftmag.com/photos.