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Despite the varied tastes on campus, an eerily specific image comes to mind when one conceptualizes the Vassar music scene: a waif-thin, disaffected skinny-jean clad Brooklyn 20-something slouching behind a guitar or a set of knobs, producing sounds that are painfully inaccessible, if frequently hip.
For those looking for a break, this weekend’s Hip Hop 101 Throwback Jam offers six solid hours of hip-hop, inviting rappers, DJs, dancers and graffiti artists to the quad to perform. Free and open to the public, the Throwback Jam, running from 12:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 17, will feature artists ranging from old-school (Big Daddy Kane) to up-and-coming (J.Cole) to those from the community, with free beer and barbecue to boot.
“This is something we’ve done every year since the start of Hip Hop 101,” said President Emma Carmichael ’10. “Essentially, it’s an outdoor concert modeled after a block party barbecue. We try to model it after how hip-hop started out in the Bronx, and I wasn’t there, so this is only [based] on what I’ve heard, but there’s a lot of outdoor music, with turntables plugged into the street lamp connections.”
An emphasis on the origins of hip-hop is key to the feel of the event. Said Hip Hop 101 member Jay Leff ’10, “What’s really exciting about this event for us is Throwback Jam usually brings a more old-school vibe.” This “vibe” is well-represented in this year’s line-up. In addition to the Dynamic Rockers, a b-boy crew from New York City that was founded in 1979 and has been credited with bringing break dancing to the mainstream, rapper Big Daddy Kane will perform, bringing with him a legacy dating back to the ’80s.
“He brought the internal rhyme scheme to hip-hop,” said Leff. “So essentially, like, one break from his verses will have four rhymes within it. Eminem, Jay-Z and Snoop all consider him their biggest influence. He’s old, but he can still rock.”
For Big Daddy Kane, this will be a somewhat atypical performance, but an exciting one nonetheless. “I’m just a person that loves hip hop music,” said Kane in a phone interview, “and I appreciate those that appreciate it. I don’t really know what to expect, but I’m looking forward to it.”
But this year’s Throwback Jam doesn’t just celebrate hip-hop’s origins; it looks to its future, as well. Performers like J.Cole and Ra the MC, though not yet mainstream stalwarts, could be the next big thing. Carmichael described Cole as “this young guy who’s being heralded as kind of the future of hip-hop,” noting his recent press exposure in hip hop magazines like XXL and The Source. “Jay-Z signed him,” she continued. “Jay-Z kind of brought him out on his new album, The Blueprint 3, which is pretty significant and telling of how dope this guy is.”
“What’s pretty cool about J.Cole,” added Leff, “is that he’s under the radar right now, but I’m pretty sure every person on this campus will know who he is in the next year or two.”
Ironically, Kane’s relationship with Jay-Z before he rose to fame is comparable to the one Jay-Z has with Cole, bringing a sense of continuity to the varied line-up. Of Jay-Z, said Kane, “He’s just someone that used to come on the road with us in the ’90s.”
Ra the MC, a DC-based rapper, will be the first woman to perform at Throwback since Carmichael and Leff became involved. For Carmichael, this is an especially important performance. “I’m writing my thesis on female rappers,” she explained, “and she was someone I interviewed as part of the project. And I really wanted before I left to have a woman on that stage because it’s been very male dominated… It’s just exciting to see a woman kind of rock the mic like we’re used to seeing men do.”
Though it’s exciting for Hip Hop 101 to feature these artists, the organization has an issue with name recognition of the performers it brings. Unlike other groups such as NoViCE, Hip Hop 101 doesn’t try to make a point of featuring obscure artists. Said Leff, “One thing we’ve struggled with is having name recognition,” said Leff. “If you’re someone who doesn’t necessarily involve yourself in the hip-hop culture, then it’s hard to know these names because they’re older or under the mainstream radar.”
The live experience provides an opportunity for this to reach beyond the usual audience; said Kane, “If you enjoy the stage show, even if you may be unfamiliar with the music, I think you can still have a good time and enjoy yourself.”
Throwback Jam stresses universality, allowing music to connect seemingly disparate communities, whether or not the artists are well-known in either. “The other big component of this event is that it’s free and explicitly open to the public,” said Leff. “The attendance is generally 50-50 Vassar and Poughkeepsie community. It’s a wonderful way to get those two communities in the same space.”
In Kane’s own experience, looking back to the early history of hip-hop, an intermingling of different groups has always been an essential part of the culture.
“You look back to the beginning of hip-hop in the ’70s,” he said, “We’re talking about rapping, talking about DJing, talking about break dancing. We’re talking about doing the human beat box, we’re talking about fashion, that time period, you know. You had a lot of black cats that were rapping. But you also had some white guys that were DJing. You had… all the disco fever that made it possible for hip-hop fans to have a place to party so it wouldn’t have to be in an abandoned building.”
“It’s always been a multicultural thing,” he added.
Specifically referencing recent events such as the Free Weezy: A Mug Night fiasco, Carmichael pointed to Throwback Jam as an opportunity to deal with and move past acknowledged issues within the Vassar community.
“Recent events on campus make it clear that we’re still not sure how to talk about those kinds of tensions, like a white person appropriating hip-hop culture,” Carmichael continued. “I would encourage people who are still like weary about those tensions or upset about those tensions to get a chance to engage in a way that isn’t on the Internet or isn’t necessarily antagonistic. Because I think there are productive forms of hip-hop on this campus and we could learn from them.”
At the end of the day, an event like Throwback Jam is an opportunity to loosen up, eat some barbecue and have fun; said Kane, “I’m looking forward to coming out to Poughkeepsie and having a good time.”
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