The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival isn’t for Brooklyn. It’s for hip-hop, says founder Wes Jackson.
“It was never intended to be in Brooklyn, for Brooklyn, by Brooklyn,” he says. “It’s not about celebrating Brooklyn artists exclusively. It’s about everyone from the world coming to Brooklyn to celebrate.”
Jackson, a resident of Clinton Hill, grew up in the Bronx and moved to Bedford-Stuyvesant after attending college in Virginia.
“Brooklyn is always mentioned in hip-hop, but where do you go to get that energy?” he says. Tourists visit the reference points like Junior’s or Coney Island and hear about the Marcy Projects and the mafia, says Jackson, but at the fifth annual festival, they’ll get a wider view, including funk and soul music, food and art. Jackson intends for the event to mirror the cultural significance of institutions like the New Orleans Jazz Festival, a major inspiration after a visit.
“It was one of the best times I’ve ever had,” he says. “I was in the gym one day and it just hit me, ‘Why isn’t there a hip-hop festival of that caliber?’”
Among the well-known artists and groups headlining this year are Pharoahe Monch, DJ Premier, Styles P, dead prez and Smif-N-Wessun. “Uncle” Ralph McDaniels of Hot 97 fame will host the show.
It’s not all big names, though. Torae, an MC signed to Brooklyn’s Duck Down Records and fixture in hip-hop’s underground, makes his debut as a festival performer with partner Marco Polo.
“My passport’s pretty well-stamped,” says Torae, 29, of Coney Island, who has taken what he calls a mix of lyricism and showmanship inspired by mid-'90s “golden era” hip-hop around Europe and Canada. Now he’s excited to bring it back home.
“It’s a reflection of the City,” he says of the festival crowd. “You’re going to have people from all races, walks of life and age groups, teenagers just getting into hip-hop for the first time, and people in their late thirties and forties that grew up with the culture. It draws people who love music and want to see a good show.”
Part of Jackson’s aim was to make hip-hop “act like the 30-year-old that it is.”
“My aim, very specifically, was to create a forum to help the culture and the music move forward,” he says. “It’s been stagnant for a little bit, unless you’re in Kanye West’s lane or a ring tone rapper. Let Lil’Wayne make his money, but you know what, I can’t really rock with that anymore,” he says. “I need something else. I’m an old school, ‘90s golden-era dude. That’s on my iPod. But at the same time, these new guys, I love them too, so let’s all get busy.”
Another one of the “new guys” in this year’s lineup is Keys N Krates, a hip-hop band from Canada. Although celebrating these up and coming talents,The event sometimes heeds a heavyweight for people to take notice.
“The most excitement was Ghostface [Killah] in 2007,” adds Jackson. “He moved it to another level,” he says, helping bring festival attendance to 10,000. “People have been trying to tell me every year the ticket should be $50,” he says, but he consistently refuses, sticking with a $10 suggested donation per entry. “I don’t want a socio-economically homogenous crowd. Pricing people out doesn’t seem right to me.”
Charging more than he has been would keep fans from seeing history-making shows like Big Daddy Kane’s in 2006. “It rained something terrible that day,” says Jackson. “I was scared no one would come.The sun came out and Kane got on stage.” Also on stage that year was Lupe Fiasco, darling of “young hipster guys,” he says. “They got a dose of Kane, and others got a taste of the Lupe.” It was the kind of give-and-take Jackson hoped for when devising a show that would showcase different facets of hip-hop culture not limited to any one borough or city.The only requirement is that each artist involved shows a respect for the culture.
“If you’re a progressive MC coming out of Brooklyn or Texas, where do you go?” says Jackson. “Jim Jones and Lil Wayne can play Summer Jam.”
“I think the best thing about this festival is that it’s in Brooklyn. It’s in New York.You don’t have to go out to Giants Stadium or Jones Beach,” Torae adds. “It’s going to help me as an artist. I think it’s going to help the festival just to show that they still work with up and coming cats.You don’t have to be on a major label.”
> Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival
June 20, Empire Fulton Ferry State Park, enter park at Main & Water Sts., Brooklyn, www.brooklynbodega.com; noon to 8, $10 suggested donation
