Press Reviews A 'rapper's delight' Hip Hop Club a growing force at UM By Fawad Siddiqui and Jorge Avellan Of the Staff It's Tuesday afternoon and UM graduate Lenny Kagan is standing in front of a microphone in a Mahoney Residential College dorm room. Before him, junior Adam Delanoy is sitting in front of a desk covered by recording equipment and a beat machine attached to Kagan's mic. Kagan and Delanoy are two of the oldest members of one of UM's newest club ... and rapping is their passion. About a year and a half ago, three ambitious students-Kagan, David Rosenberg and Cassim Bookum-had a vision for a new creative outlet at the University of Miami. Their dream was the Hip-Hop Club. Now, that dream is a reality and the club is drawing consistently large and diverse turnout to its meetings Monday nights at 9 p.m. in the University Center's International Lounge. HIP-HOP HISTORY LESSON "At our first meetings we only had about five people show up ... now we have around fifty," said Hip-Hop Club President Sanga Collins of the club's growth since it was founded in late 1999. He said the club's officers are amazed by the interest students have been showing over the past academic year. Delanoy said the club has been strong since last semester and that they were able to generate an e-mail list of over 300 members thanks to tabling in the UC Breezeway and through its Website at www.umhiphopclub.com. Last semester's Hip-Hop Club events and activities included two shows at Club 5922 in South Miami, a party at the Rat and two barbecues-their most successful events, Delanoy said. AN ELEMENTAL THING Like many of the Club's members, who have individual aliases when performing, the club itself has an alias: "The Elements." That's what club members go by when performing as a group, and it's also the name that will appear on an upcoming compilation album the group is working on-recorded in Delanoy's dorm room-to be released in April. The name comes from the "four elements of hip-hop culture" which the Club deals with: emceeing (or rapping), deejaying, breakdancing and graffiti. And club members are divided into different "crews" depending upon which element they want to focus on when planning, practicing for or performing at events, Delanoy said. There are currently 10 members in the Emcee Crew, five in the Deejay Crew, and a less defined number of members for the Breakdance and Graffiti Crews. "Graffiti isn't really big right now, it's kind of a hard element because you can't go around spraying up walls and getting into trouble. They work on banners for the club and on shows, to promote events," he said. Self-expression is a common theme in everything the club does, including the Monday night meetings. "The meeting lasts an hour but we won't go home till about an hour after that. Afterward, the leader of the Breakdancing crew will teach people how to break dance ... the emcees will have freestyle sessions ... someone'll bring a boom box up there." But Delanoy said the Hip-Hop Club shouldn't be labeled as being just for people interested in performing. "There are people there that don't dance, that don't rap, that don't do graffiti," he said. "We've had presentations on the history of hip-hop" and other things are shown at the meetings, such as documentary on the club itself by co-founder Rosenberg, a film student. "We are providing a positive outlet for people interested in hip-hop at UM," said Rosenberg, now the club's treasurer, after the meeting. FAME AND GLORY Another, lesser goal of the club is to give members plenty of opportunities to show off their talent and help them find employment in the music industry through networking, said Delanoy. Last semester, the club arranged for free registration for club members to the "How Can I Be Down?" music conference at South Beach, and a guest appearance for club members on 99 Jamz radio's "Big Lip Bandit" countdown show. Also, the club's membership now includes a representative from Fader Magazine and a promoter for Deff Jam and Electra Records. "We help one another in any way that we can," said Collins referring to allowing use of the dorm room studio and the support that the club gives to its members. Collins also stressed various inroads into the music business that aren't regularly presented to students in music education programs. Business students, for example, can get a job in the music business working on public relations or promotion, and aspiring journalists can write for a music magazine. No matter what you are interested in, Collins said, the Hip-Hop Club can help you get started. "We've made connections through all this, but I don't see it developing into an organization where that's the purpose," added Delanoy. "It's not a placement center, but that's a benefit of being in the club. That you're going to meet people." Fame and fortune, though, are not what the club is about, said Delanoy. "That's never been one of our goals to try to become famous. That's not to say that no body will, but there's really only a few people in the club who are trying to make hip-hop their life and their career." "For the most part people are just participating in the events for the fun, just to have something to do and express themselves," he said. CURRENT ACTIVITIES With the increase in participation has come an increase in club activities. Things discussed at the last meeting included new, informal, improvisation sessions on the UC Patio every other Saturday, including tomorrow, from 4-8 p.m. Also discussed were the compilation album and an upcoming trip to perform for children at a local elementary school on Feb. 23. Club member DJ Sage, the club's headlining deejay, will be performing every other Saturday at the same time at the Patio in what Rosenberg called "a great opportunity to learn more about the Hip-Hop Club and what we do." "People are free-styling. Improvising. Deejays go out there, they have their records, their spinning, Breakdancers are there. It's just something fun," said Delanoy. "And it's a way we can recruit members, too." The Club's album, which is currently in post-production and includes a variety of styles-since it features members from all over the country-is being produced during the weekends, said Delanoy. Delanoy, one of the club's main producers, said the club will be sending the album off to be mastered and pressed professionally, and they are optimistic that it will be a success. Once completed, it will be available for listening on Napster or MP3.com. On February 23, the club will be visiting local Bel Air Elementary School where they've invited to perform and speak to underprivileged school kids as part of a creative presentation dealing with Black History Month. The event will also be an attempt to show the elementary schoolers that they can relate with college students, said Delanoy. "I would say the reason why the Hip-Hop Club is successful is that it's something that was missing before," said Delanoy of how the club is doing overall this semester. "So many people on campus at least listened to hip-hop. Until we started the club, there was no outlet, there was nothing for someone who loves hip-hop to do." "Stop wondering and just come out to our club," said Ronsenberg to students who may be hesitant to exercise their interest in hip-hop. S

Location Miami, Florida - USA

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