HERE celebrates hip hop in Houston

By Lawanda Turner     3/25/10 7:00pm

Rice rolled out the red carpet Tuesday to honor the first recipient of the Houston Enriches Rice Education Project Legacy Award. Students, professors and Houston rappers gathered March 23 in Keck 100 for the ceremony, where a panel discussed the significance and contribution of hip hop in Houston over the last 25 years. Houston Enriches Rice Education, known as the HERE Project, began in 2007 as an effort to help immerse students in culture under the direction of Humanities Professor Anthony Pinn.

The HERE Project Legacy Award forum consisted of a panel of central figures involved in Houston's hip-hop culture. This event was televised live at http://webcast.rice.edu.

Ikechi Nnamani, a Baker College freshman and aspiring hip-hop artist, felt that the panelists shared valuable information.

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"I think the information shared yesterday was motivational and it gave me an in-depth look at how some of the nation's elite artists began," Nnamani said.

One common theme, mentioned by many of the panelists, was authenticity. They emphasized the idea that an artist's music should be representative of who they are.

"It was great. Words can't explain how amazing it was to see so many legendary hip-hop artists under one roof at the same time, especially here at Rice where there isn't a huge hip-hop scene," Nnamani said. "The fact that modern day artists such as Bun B, Slim Thug and Trae were literally 10 feet in front of me is still unreal, and I believe every single student in attendance felt the exact same. I just wish the room was larger and there was advance notice because I know a lot of people that wanted to attend that were not able to for one reason or another."

One of the purposes of the forum was to honor James Prince, also known as J Prince, as a hip-hop personality considered to have made a major contribution in service to Houston. The first HERE Project Legacy Award was presented to Prince, who founded Rap-A-Lot Records, a Houston-based hip-hop label, in 1986, for spending the last 20 years promoting Houston's rap artists.

Because he applied for a job at Rice years ago and was rejected, Prince said he appreciates an honor from a Rice organization.

Aundrea Matthews, graduate student assistant and project coordinator for the event, said HERE's goal is to show that there is a wealth of knowledge, experience and culture in Houston that can benefit the Rice community. Starting six weeks beforehand, Matthews, a doctoral student, used her professional contacts to invite rap artists, producers and managers to share their insight on the impact of hip hop on Houston.

Undergraduate volunteers Epiphany Brown and Tia Scott, Will Rice College sophomores, said the event was very successful. Keck 100 was filled to capacity and some audience members had to stand in the aisles. The total count for attendance was over 200. This was the first time that these artists were all assembled together. However, organizers said they were surprised to receive calls from Rice alumni who also wanted to attend the event. The invitation was extended to alumni after they expressed interest.

Matthews enlisted the help of Scott and Brown to spread the word around campus.

According to Brown, getting the large turnout was a difficult task.

"Many people did not recognize who the rappers were, but a couple of Rice students invited their Facebook friends to the [Facebook] group, which brought in some more people to the event," Scott said. "The turnout was great in the end."

Fox 26 News and the Houston Chronicle were also present at the event.

Brown believes the challenges she had promoting the event were due to people's preconceived notions about hip hop.

"I'm sure a lot of people were turned off by it," Brown said. "I had some colleges straight-out reject my e-mail with no explanations given."

Brown overcame this rejection by asking friends she knew who have connections to college secretaries to distribute the information.

Maya Reine, program coordinator for the HERE project, said that a large crowd was anticipated. Matthews said that while Keck Hall's location makes it more accessible to visitors, a larger space would have improved the event. She also said that the costs of the larger facilities on campus were not economically feasible.

Reine said HERE plans to limit admission to Rice faculty, staff and students in the future to address space constraint problems. Matthews said she is not sure if next year's theme will be hip hop, but it will honor another person who has demonstrated excellence in serving Houston communities. There is a video of the event at webcast.rice.edu.

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