Silicon Valley? Getting on the Map in Hip Hop? And for the kids too? Really?
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Theflowonline
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The Silicon Valley Black Chamber of Commerce in partnership with The Flow Online announced the creation and distribution of the first ever comprehensive list of arguably every rapper that made an impact on the "Hip Hop" culture. This historical perspective starts with the early influences up to the year 2000. In the form of a poster called "The Evolution of Rap" (EOR) the poster includes 500+ rappers listed with 150+ pictures.
This poster was created by Joel Wyrick, current president of the Silicon Valley Black Chamber of Commerce and founder of a youth entrepreneurial program called the Next Generation Business Academy (NGBA). The NGBA is a youth entrepreneurial program that teaches kids both financial and business literacy skills to low to moderate income junior high and high school students in San Jose. The initial purpose of the poster was to be used as a fun tool for teaching kids the fundamentals on how to start a small business. Using this poster as an example kids are able to experience how you can create a product from scratch, put your product into production and market and sell it to the public.
"While hanging out in New Orleans to attend the New Orleans Jazz Heritage Festival, I came across an intriguing poster in a souvenir shop on Bourbon Street. The poster depicted an image of a tree whose trunk and extending branches listed, by timeline and by genre, every musician making an impact on America's indigenous art form called Jazz. At the time I remember thinking to myself, wow, I hope one day someone recognizes and invents a similar form of acknowledgement for America's second indigenous art form ... Hip Hop," Wyrick comments. "I flashed back to the thought I had on Bourbon Street when first encountering the jazz poster. Amazed that to date no one had yet created a list of rappers or individuals having impacted Hip Hop in its short form, I thought what a great project to do with a musical genre the kids could relate to. . It started off so simple and soon took on a whole new meaning...
Wyrick further comments, "nothing like this has ever been done so within the first hour of research into this project, we realized this was way more difficult than we thought. We had to first determine what our definition of a rapper really is?! After setting parameters, only then try to determine which artists should make the poster and which artists should be left out. Yes, the EOR is subjective which makes it an instant education and conversation piece. Unfortunately, like with all firsts, the inevitability that something (or in this case someone) would be left behind is most certainly a given. It was amazing how passionate people are with their music. They all seem to have a strong opinion too! Our poster should merely be viewed as a starting point and not as something ultimately written in stone."
Contact Matthew Shack stercrazyproductions@yahoo.com
This poster was created by Joel Wyrick, current president of the Silicon Valley Black Chamber of Commerce and founder of a youth entrepreneurial program called the Next Generation Business Academy (NGBA). The NGBA is a youth entrepreneurial program that teaches kids both financial and business literacy skills to low to moderate income junior high and high school students in San Jose. The initial purpose of the poster was to be used as a fun tool for teaching kids the fundamentals on how to start a small business. Using this poster as an example kids are able to experience how you can create a product from scratch, put your product into production and market and sell it to the public.
"While hanging out in New Orleans to attend the New Orleans Jazz Heritage Festival, I came across an intriguing poster in a souvenir shop on Bourbon Street. The poster depicted an image of a tree whose trunk and extending branches listed, by timeline and by genre, every musician making an impact on America's indigenous art form called Jazz. At the time I remember thinking to myself, wow, I hope one day someone recognizes and invents a similar form of acknowledgement for America's second indigenous art form ... Hip Hop," Wyrick comments. "I flashed back to the thought I had on Bourbon Street when first encountering the jazz poster. Amazed that to date no one had yet created a list of rappers or individuals having impacted Hip Hop in its short form, I thought what a great project to do with a musical genre the kids could relate to. . It started off so simple and soon took on a whole new meaning...
Wyrick further comments, "nothing like this has ever been done so within the first hour of research into this project, we realized this was way more difficult than we thought. We had to first determine what our definition of a rapper really is?! After setting parameters, only then try to determine which artists should make the poster and which artists should be left out. Yes, the EOR is subjective which makes it an instant education and conversation piece. Unfortunately, like with all firsts, the inevitability that something (or in this case someone) would be left behind is most certainly a given. It was amazing how passionate people are with their music. They all seem to have a strong opinion too! Our poster should merely be viewed as a starting point and not as something ultimately written in stone."
Contact Matthew Shack stercrazyproductions@yahoo.com