Dice Gamble recently caught up with Nick Power (a.k.a. B-Boy Rely), one of the key people behind the upcoming Platform 1 Hip Hop Festival in Sydney.
In this exclusive interview, the well respected Hip Hop choreographer, performer, teacher and activist discusses the current state of Hip Hop and describes how the Platform 1 Festival will represent the culture to the fullest, through workshops, exhibitions and performances.
Hip Hop is a culture with four main elements. Platform 1 showcases all of those elements. What is your goal and dream as far as achievement with this festival?
Just to showcase real Hip Hop culture and to give the Sydney Hip Hop community a chance to make some noise!
Hip Hop continues to grow around the globe and has now has taken many forms, but also has seen some distortions through commercialisation. How does Platform 1 Hip Hop Festival embrace the true essence of Hip Hop?
By bringing it back to the elements and presenting it uncompromised in its purest form.
Hip Hop is loved by many but also misunderstood by many. How do you plan to bring more knowledge about this culture to those that know little about it with this festival?
A lot of people don’t know what real Hip Hop is about. I think Platform 1 will expose a broad audience to what a positive and vibrant culture it is.
Emceeing, DJing, Breakdancing and Graffiti - all are contained in this event. How was the selection process for those involved? [i.e. the talent]
Mistery is looking after the Graff Comp ‘Can Control’, he knows all the heads that are representing in that area. You’re going to see a lot of B*Boys and B*Girls from all around Oz competing in the Freak the Technique Battle. The flexing skills freestyle jam took the most brain strain to get the line up down ‘cause you got 4 MCs, 4DJs, 4 Breakers and 4 Vocalists plus the Metabass Allstars all rocking it…. That’s going to be a crazy jam.
This year’s line-up includes Def Wish Cast, Foreign Heights, Morganics, Mistery, Wire MC, Metabass Allstars plus more. Was your line-up selection based on what you loved to hear [personal taste] or did it fall in place as planning went on?
Some of the artists involved I had worked with over the years, some were recommended and some I saw at a freestyle open mic session and was like, they were dope, they’d be great for the ‘Flexing Skills’ night.
How do you envision this line-up will compliment this event?
I think all the artists involved are highly skilled and are going to be in their element at Platform 1 (pardon the pun!)
Apart from the showcases you also have dance workshops going on at the event. How does breaking, popping and locking add to the hip hop culture and what would it mean having workshops like these in various places throughout Australia?
Breaking, Popping and Locking are the true Hip Hop dance styles. This dance that people call ‘Hip Hop dance’ actually has nothing to do with Hip Hop… but let’s not get political. We’ve got Arch Rival from Wicked Force in Melbourne teaching Locking and Versastyle from Brisbane is teaching the breaking, so we’ve got some serious interstate talent and experience there.
How do you see Hip hop in 2008? Where do you see Hip hop [worldwide] in the next 5 - 10 years?
I think Hip Hop is in a good space and will continue to grow. From a B*Boys perspective, when I first started 15 years ago there were about 10 good breakers in Australia now there are over 25 crews and people are flying all round the world competing. The big difference is that it’s Hip Hop heads that are running it so its not being exploited like it has been in the past.
How do you see its development in Australia in the next coming years?
Oz Hip Hop will continue to grow and thrive.
Where do you see the Platform 1 festival going [in growth an development] in its coming years?
Well, I hope we can grow it into a week long festival, but for now I just want to make this one a success.
Catch the Platform 1 Hip Hop Festival action at CarriageWorks on 28 & 29 March in Sydney.
For more info:
www.planeturban.com.au/urban_news/event_news_platform_1_hip_hop_festival_aus
