by jon bosworth jaxvillain@yahoo.com
There have been rumors floating around Jacksonville that we have a hip-hop scene that is about to make some national noise. Here’s a brief history: after Outkast, Goodie Mob, and Ludacris started blowing up out of Atlanta, all the hip-hop talk was about the “dirty south.” Then came the “crunk” movement, which, when described, seems as though it should be similar to the rap-metal of the Limp Bizkit heyday, but instead of white boys bringing rap into metal, this is black dudes bringing punk into rap, in the case of Lil’ Jon (whom you may remember from the Dave Chapelle Show), and black dudes bringing rap into their punk, in the case of Whole Wheat Bread. It just so happens that Jacksonville’s Whole Wheat Bread has been in Utah helping Lil’ Jon with his new album, forging yet another local tie to the national rap scene. Although Limp Bizkit and Whole Wheat Bread are both from here, it may be something of a stretch to call Jacksonville the home to either style, but the point is that more and more groups from Jacksonville are rising to the top.
Last year, a movie called Grind 2 Shine debuted at the Florida Theatre. This film claimed to be the first documentary of the Jacksonville hip-hop scene, and the hope must have been that it would either help launch this scene out of obscurity, or become the documenting authority of a movement that was moving up on its own. Neither happened. Nevertheless, the hip-hop culture in this town keeps on brewing.
At the crest of this wave is Ian Ranne. Ian put together a little event at Thee Imperial called Hip Hop Hell, and it was a place for people who were interested in the artistry of hip-hop to show off their chops. There was freestyling, organized acts, touring acts, and all sorts of mayhem. Hip Hop Hell quickly became a dominant force in the late night club scene and outgrew its reputation as strictly a hip-hop event. The music coming out of this creative engine was culminating. It was fresh, new, and multi-cultural. People that first donned the stage during a freestyle battle eventually developed an entire set and now they are touring the region. Hip Hop Hell happens in several clubs on several nights of the week, and constantly the crowds are growing, because this isn’t the kind of hip-hop that looks down its nose at anyone that isn’t “fronting,” this is the kind of hip-hop that anyone that likes music can get into.
With that as the starting point, Ian recently joined forces with Tony Allegretti, an owner of Burrito Gallery and Allegretti Consulting, who has been instrumental in the new popularity of Downtown and Springfield, to put together a festival called Summertime in the City.
The first festival of its kind in Jacksonville, Summertime in the City will be an all day, free, outdoor hip-hop festival complete with jazz, funk, and R&B acts early in the evening and a break dancing competition to complement the full lineup of live hip-hop acts. All of this will take place at the corner of Main and Adams, directly in front of the Urban Core mural on the side of the Burrito Gallery restaurant. As the media sponsor of this event, EU will feature interviews with the bands that will be performing every week between now and July 15, the date of the festival.
Stay tuned and tap into this musical movement as it swells into the national scope. This is the first year of an annual festival that will eventually be far too big for a parking lot downtown, so get on the pulse and look here next week for an interview with The N Word.
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