The ThunderBlogs

The sixth annual Hip Hop For Peace festival hit the Vancouver Art Gallery Saturday, featuring performances from local and global hip hop artists with an anti-war message.

Mobilization Against War and Occupation, a Vancouver activist group with a young, student-based following, hosted the event to rally opposition against the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Politics and music collided during the show, as audience members switched between signing petitions and dancing to classic Run-DMC samples blasting out of stacked speakers.

“I’m just here for the music,” said Tommy Gao, an aspiring young rapper in oversized headphones and neon blue Adidas. When approached to donate to the activist group, Gao said, “Nah man, I’m just a poor rapper in this city.” But many of the artists made it clear that hip hop and activism are closely connected.

“Hip hop is a culture that has been successful at getting people off the streets, out of drugs and involved with a culture that goes beyond the local and allows you to participate in a movement around the world,” said El Tibo Este from headlining act Obsesión, speaking through a Spanish translator.

Obsesión hail from Cuba, a country strongly supported by the event organizers. The Cuban flag hung sideways behind the stage, and a massive spraypainted image of the “Cuban Five”, five Cuban illegal immigrants being held under suspicion of terrorism in the United States, was also prominent. “Cuba is a country that is always in revolution,” said Este. “We support removal of the blockade for the good of the people.”

The petition circulated called for the complete, immediate evacuation of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. Graffiti art with the message “Out Now” in gold and green flanked the stage on either side.

Despite the serious goals of the event, the ambiance was fun and celebratory. While First Nations radio host Kelly White led the crowd in a chant of, “When I say ‘Hip’ you say ‘Hop’, when I say ‘No’, you say ‘War'”, kids in sweatsuits practiced their spins on a makeshift breakdancing surface in front of her.

“When you talk about a hip hop festival against war, it scares people off,” said Darja Milidragovic, a local activist who immigrated to Vancouver as a child during the Bosnia-Herzegovina War. “When you switch it and talk about a hip hop festival for peace, it has a positive connotation… ‘War’ doesn’t move the masses. It demands a lot of responsibility and sacrifice. Peace is something everyone can give the time of day to.”