Hip Hop for Change

Reclaiming Hip Hop Culture for Education, Empowerment, and Cultural Innovation

Model and Strategy

Hip Hop for Change (HH4C) empowers marginalized communities in the Bay Area and beyond by providing education, employment, and resources to preserve the culture of Hip Hop. Birthed as an outlet for oppressed people to address socio-economic injustices and validate their experiences through music, artistic expression, and storytelling, Hip Hop has been co-opted by corporate interests. HH4C was founded to reclaim this beautiful cultural art form. HH4C addresses the injustices of misrepresentation and provides positive representations of Hip Hop culture that youth and the public can draw from instead of relying on mainstream media. It educates people on how Hip Hop can be utilized as a tool for social justice and ending white supremacy. It gives people who identify with Hip Hop culture a safe space to express their truest voices, selves, and culture. And it promotes socially conscious Hip Hop that more accurately depicts the beauty and diversity of communities of color.

HH4C’s flagship education program is The MC: Hip Hop Evolution, Music and Culture. Delivered primarily in K-12 classrooms and afterschool programs, The MC is a five-module, hands on course that teaches the history and societal impact of Hip Hop and the fundamentals of Hip Hop arts such as rapping, beat-making, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti. Other components of HH4C’s education programming include the Agents of Change Residency/Summer Camp, a partnership with the East Bay Regional Parks District that ties in a culturally relevant arts education curriculum with exploration of the natural world; Pipeline to Positivity, a partnership with the Alameda County Detention Center under the purview of the Alameda County Probation Department, to connect their Oakland youth to HH4C resources and artists as a part of their reintegration process; and Women In Hip Hop, a curriculum/workshop series that looks at the historical context that Hip Hop was born of and its evolution, with an emphasis on women’s influences and experiences. All HH4C education programs employ working Bay Area artists at a livable wage as teachers and mentors.

“Our movement is grounded in the root values of Hip Hop culture: peace, love, unity, and having fun.”

Hip Hop for Change recently realized its long-time dream of owning its own professional recording studio. The studio, slated to open in early 2023, will be a free community resource to youth under 21: a safe and versatile space for all things Hip Hop, for young people to heal from collective trauma and transform their frustrations into art and activism.

Impact

Hip Hop for Change’s education programs have reached over 30,000 young people in the Bay Area since 2013, with modules of The MC Program delivered in a majority of Oakland and San Francisco schools, and in school districts ranging from Palo Alto Unified in Santa Clara County, to Sonoma Valley Unified in Sonoma County. HH4C recently expanded its reach to Southern California, becoming a vendor with the Los Angeles Unified School District. During the COVID-19 pandemic the organization created The MC Online, a web-based Hip Hop education course, reaching students in Flint, Atlanta, New York City, Houston, and other U.S. cities. HH4C measures its impact by the number of youth it reaches, the level of improvement in their ability to express themselves creatively by using Hip Hop as a tool, and the overall satisfaction of our program. For HH4C, success over the next year means reaching 10,000 young people within 20 different Bay Area neighborhoods who report 80-95% improvement in their ability to express themselves through Hip Hop arts and music, and a minimum of 90-95% satisfaction with their programming. HH4C’s most recent collection of surveys demonstrated that students gained a greater appreciation for music that had positive messaging. Students reported that they were more engaged in school activities after participating in The MC program. Widening the lens, HH4C’s ultimate goal is systemic change rooted in our community, owning the means of our creative production, amplifying our voices, and taking back our narrative … And we won’t stop until we take the game back!”
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Leadership

  • Marlon

    Marlon Richardson

    Education Director

  • Malina

    Malina King

    Grass Roots Director

  • Marc

    Marc Stretch

    Marketing & Creative Director

  • Pallavi

    Pallavi Kidambi

    Grants Manager