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DURHAM -- There's a lot of hard work that goes into creating a hip-hop track. Local high school and college students got a behind the scenes look Saturday at the Movement of Youth Hip-Hop Symposium held at Hayti Heritage Center.
Students spent the morning in a workshop with Pierce Freelon and other members of the hip-hop/jazz group The Beast. Freelon also teaches at N.C. Central University.
Joshua Moffett, an NCCU freshman, is in Freelon's hip-hop and political movements class. Moffett said his standards for the genre have changed since learning about hip-hop's roots and cultural connections. He said it is refreshing to have a teacher who is living hip-hop firsthand. Saturday was the first time Moffett saw his professor on stage, and the student was also one of a few audience volunteers to emcee a song called "The Movement."
Freelon involved the 30 or so young people with creating a recording. Members of The Beast explained how each beat is laid down on a track, then how a guitar loop, drum sequence and bass line are edited together. A projection screen on the Hayti stage showed the students what the musicians were doing. Bassist Pete Kimosh is also a sound engineer, and took them through the process, step by step using Cubase music software on his Mac.
The audience repeating "Welcome to the movement" was recorded for a final track The Beast will finish and send to the participants.
Clifton Ray, a Duke University freshman and part of Movement of Youth, said that hip-hop is an important aspect of his life and he learned a lot in The Beast look at a recording studio session.
"I didn't know how much time is devoted to just one song, how difficult it is and the dedication it takes to make an album," Ray said.
UNC senior Brandon Patton, also with Movement of Youth, said that they wanted the students to gain insight into what goes into creating the music -- that it is more than just the beat a lyrics they hear.
Freelon said that his workshops get beyond the mainstream media image of hip-hop as a monolithic, debasing corporate entity. Hip-hop is a cultural movement that includes art and dance, he said, and can be uplifting. He thinks you should ground yourself in the roots of the culture, not just the corporate rap music industry.
"It's one thing to listen to hip-hop from an entertainment perspective, and another thing to engage the culture as well," Freelon said. Hip-hop is more than just music, he said.
Way, who works in the hip-hop industry in Washington, D.C. and is from Durham, led a second session, in a classroom, talking about hip-hop today. Rap is the vocal expression of hip-hop, he said, which includes breakdancing, emcees, graffiti and knowledge. Way and the students talked about hip-hop as creative expression versus commodity. He urged them not to restrict themselves creatively.
Brandon Dillard and Isaiah McArthur, both sophomores at Josephine Dobbs Early College High School in Durham, came to the symposium to learn more about the history and creation of hip-hop. Brandon said he found the amount of time that goes into making just one song "epic."
Isaiah said hip-hop speaks to his heart, to who he is.
"Music is something that calms me down with I'm having a hard time. You can express yourself," he said.
Other speakers on the schedule Saturday included Apple Juice Kid, DJ D-Cutta and Kooley High.
