Brew City’s inaugural Hip Hop Week MKE kicks off on Monday, Aug. 20 and offers a full slate of events, from documentary film screenings to networking events to lectures to performances by the likes of Ghostface Killah and Milwaukee’s own Baby Drew.
The granddaddy of hip-hop, DJ Kool Herc, will also make an appearance.
A full schedule of events can be found below.
The event is the brainchild of Ald. Khalif J. Rainey, who sponsored legislation that created Hip Hop Week MKE. Recently, Rainey also made a pitch for the city to host Jay-Z’s annual Made in America festival.
While that effort was unsuccessful this time, Rainey still has a lot to be proud of in Hip Hop MKE, which looks to be an engaging week full of great music, informative discussions not only about music, but about wellness, violence, civic engagement and financial literacy, and helpful programming, too, like a health fair.
"I’ve always known the true innate transformational power of hip-hop and I wanted to bring that to Milwaukee in a meaningful way with Hip Hop Week MKE – taking place for the first time ever at venues across the city," Rainey said.
"I encourage everyone to come out and be a part of Hip Hop Week MKE, attend performances, come to seminars to learn and ask questions and to see what the array of events has to offer."
We’ll talk to Ald. Khalif Rainey more about Hip Hop Week MKE tonight in a Facebook Live at the Newaukee Night Market, but in the meantime, here is the complete schedule of events:
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
