Madison was host to a Hip Hop Revival over this weekend, which included events across the city. The revival was organized by Roberto Rivera, who spoke with Dane101 about the event and hip hop culture in Madison. According to Rivera, "We're planning to do at least three big events a year from here on out. This event today is annual; this is the first year, and it will be bigger each year."

This act of mouth to mic resuscitation was covered here on Thursday, and previewed the revival, describing it as a unique and positive event that would draw "together not only local hip hop artists, but fans and casual listeners as well."

This appeared to be the case on Saturday afternoon at about 3 p.m., halfway through that day's concert at Library Mall on the UW-Madison campus. The event featured DJs, rappers and spoken word poets, graffiti demonstrations, and a lot of breakdancing. This final pillar of hip hop culture drew a decent crowd of onlookers, with a small gallery of photos appearing below the fold.

According to Rivera, "the group that is behind this event is Elements of Change, a collective of artists, innovators, and business-minded people trying to refocus hip hop in a positive-minded direction." Rivera, the founder of Elements of Change, also described the organization as "a consulting group that will work with educators to help them understand hip hop culture," in order to assist their work to "better understand and educate young people," including educational presentations.

The Saturday afternoon concert was only a single part of the weekend's events, which was capstoned by Saturday night battles at the Lussier Teen Center (New Loft) on East Wash. Graffiti murals highlighted for the revival included one on Park St. (just north of W. Wingra Dr.), the one at Mother Fools on Willy, and another at the New Loft.

This weekend's hip hop regeneration was also a revival in the truly old-school Awakening sense. This morning featured "the first hip hop service in the city" according to Rivera, which was held at the Fountain of Life church, located at James C. Wright Middle School. This was followed by a barbeque this afternoon, featuring more performances and a bus backdrop for de novo graffiti.

The pastor of Fountain of Life is Alex Gee, Jr., the author of Jesus and the Hip Hop Prophets, is a noted spiritual and community leader on Madison’s south side.

The mission of the revival, according to Rivera, is to "direct hip hop where it needs to go. This includes the full culture; emcees, DJs, breakdancing, graffiti, and spirituality."

As described on the website announcing the revival;

At the second National Conference on Media Reform, held in St. Louis two weeks ago, on of the featured speakers at the Saturday night keynote event was David "Davey D" Cook, the online hip hop pioneer. He addressed these themes (as documented by SFist) during his speech, discussing the usurpation of hip hop by big business, and exhorted consumers to step up and become creators.

The complete transcript and audio of Davey D's speech are available from Democracy Now!, while video his keynote is care of Cambridge Community Television.

More information about hip hop in Dane County, as always, is available from Madison Hip Hop, which is maintained by Brody Rose.

Photos from Saturday afternoon: