Many inner-city youth often do not have access to their complete cultural lineage and much less access to the ceremonies and customs of their people. Hip hop has emerged as a surrogate culture that attempts to mend severed ties to indigenous roots. Through this performance, we wish to show important commonalities and functions of both hip hop and indigenous cultures and how they can serve as a means of survival.

It is our belief that the art (so-called graffiti), music (beat-boxing, dj-turntablism), dance (so-called break-dancing, popping and locking), and poetry (rap), of hip hop are not derived, nor are they contrived by conscious means of emulation from our original roots. Rather these vitally important expressions of Òwho we areÓ are self evident and can be seen in such examples as the similarities between capoeria (a Brazilian martial arts/dance form) and break dancing, African griot story-telling and rapping, Native American drumming and dj turntabilism, and hieroglyphs and petroglyphs to contemporary aerosol art.

Another purpose of presenting this production is to show how the art, music, dance, and poetry of hip hop have been used not only as a means to mend ties with indigenous roots, but to cultivate the tools for liberation, and self-determination. For example, rap giving youth a voice, as we see through vocal, visual, physical, and musical expressions. Another valuable appropriation of these artistic tools would be to utilize hip hop as a teaching technique for standard academic lessons with experimental teaching methods (i.e. teaching physics principles through so-called break-dancing.)

Currently, the aforementioned tools of empowerment are being used as weapons to incarcerate youth not only physically, but also mentally. Conscious or unconscious these tools are effectively manipulating minds of our youth, as they are lead to believe that they are gangsters, pimps, and hoes with the same image portrayed over and over on popular radio stations and videos. The bastardized image that the mainstream media has branded hip hop has created a stereotype. The goal of the show is to redirect the current image of hip hop and to show it in its true form-- a surrogate culture of art, music, dance and poetry utilized by inner-city youth.