UK #HipHopEd Manifesto

Over the last 2 years the UK#HipHopEd crew have been working towards a manifesto of our beliefs. On Monday 4th November we will be inviting responses to this manifesto as part of the relaunch of our UK #HipHopEd Twitter chats. These chats were the groups first official foray into HipHopEd, following on from the ground-breaking work of our US family. The chats will continue weekly throughout Novemebr before the work on our 5th UK #HipHopEd seminar in February 2014. If you are interested in matters of hiphop and education, find us on Twitter using  '#HipHopEd' and have your say on the topics raised. peaCe

Old Man Raps

High production values; convincing character acting; subtlety, reflection and honest real talk about emotions are not often found within the fabric of a rap video, but Bambu's Old Man Raps, directed by Patricio Ginelsa is a pleasant and mature departure from the strip bar aesthetics of the majority of mainstream artists peddling porn in place of art.

Bambu describes himself as:

a dad, a comrade, an organizer, an artist, a worker, a fan, a soldier, a thinker, a do-er and a fighter until death.

...why so humble? add to that list, actor, lyricist, activist and fund-raiser and you can see why Bambu's old man raps carry the weight of authenticity and authority that they deserve.

The Welfare Poets: Warn Them (video)

The Welfare Poets with MC Rayzer Sharp drop conscious with some mad tricky word play. I like how Rayzer's E40-esque delivery mirrors the urgency of this piece of social hiphop poetry...

curious - Philosophicide - NEWNESS

Another taster ahead of next months Hammer&Tongue SLAM FINAL...

This verse came about after chatting to a mate about how, in comparison to oppressive governments, social control methods, armies, prisons, torture camps and the global economic oppression of billions - rappers are all pretty pussy!!

Fight the power...peaCe

So fresh, so clean

It's not often that graffiti is described as an act of environmentalism, but, apart from the wack title, 'reverse graffiti' is just that. Created by cleaning the dirt of city surfaces, this is not what the authorities hope for when they tell writers to clean up their acts and do something useful for society - careful what you wish for...