Chattanooga Hip-Hop Week closes Saturday with day of events and education

Chattanooga Hip-Hop Week is more than a celebration of music, organizers say, it’s an opportunity for local artists and others in the industry to learn about turning their love for hip-hop into a business.

The keynote speaker for the week’s Hip-Hop Summit was Dame Dash, entrepreneur and co-founder of New York City-based hip-hop record label Roc-A-Fella Records. The weeklong series of events ends with a full day Saturday.

“Get out your phone,” Dash encouraged several people in the green room of Chattanooga Theatre Centre soon after he entered Friday. He wants people to download America Nu, an online video platform he founded to break the stranglehold of Big Tech on artists, and one of Dash’s multiple business ventures.

Learning the focus and professionalism Dash demonstrates is one of the goals of Chattanooga Hip-Hop Week, according to Micah Chapman, the Hip-Hop Summit’s co-founder. Organizers said this is the fourth year of the summit.

Organizers of the events started in 2016 as a collective called Hip-Hop CHA, he said, hosting hip-hop events to build community for artists and fans.

“During that time we were trying to figure out how to make sure the community accepted hip-hop as an art,” he said before the conference. “We saw it as a lost art in Chattanooga overall, so our mission was to put it into the arts community and really make the genre itself shine as an art.”

A hip-hop conference was their next big idea — to help artists evolve from having music as a hobby to a career, he said. In 2019, they started the summit with a $100 budget, and after drawing a good-sized crowd, organizers realized they were doing something that the community wanted and needed.

After a year off for the pandemic, they returned with buy-in from recently-elected Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly. From there, other arts organizations and nonprofits got involved to make 2021’s summit and Hip-Hop Week bigger and better.

(READ MORE: Chattanooga Hip-Hop Week to showcase local art form)

This year, Chapman said organizers were able to allocate funds to other organizations in the art community for a week of hip-hop themed events, allowing them to focus on the conference.

Dash said hip-hop artists need to think about professionalism — because he’s seen people be exploited throughout his time working in the music business. Despite that, he said he’s seen more recognition for hip-hop.

“They’ve been celebrating hip-hop in a lot of different towns I’ve been going through,” Dash said. “And each place gives a different appreciation for it. I’ve been on tour because they’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, and at the same time launching a television network and promoting Raquel’s book.”

Raquel Horn is Dash’s wife, and her book “Dusko Goes to Space” teaches children about science and the universe, while allowing the couple to travel and make money together.

(READ MORE: Hip-hop turns 50, reinventing itself and swaths of the world along the way)

When asked about the future of Hip-Hop Week and the summit, Chapman said he wants to connect Chattanooga creatives to opportunities beyond this city.

“We’ve gotten our creatives out of the local mindset, so now everyone has the perspective of ‘I want to own something. I want to be a business owner, an entrepreneur,'” he said.

When asked who was the hottest hip-hop artist in town, Chapman said YGTUT. Not just because he’s touring and well-known in the industry, but because he’s consistent with his branding and music.

His favorite new hip-hop artist in town is a harder question, he said. After some thought, he named The Ragland Boys.

“They’re from toddler age up to high school and they’re brothers,” Chapman said. “The chemistry among the group and the professionalism — the toddlers knowing their cues — it’s a great show.”

If the group hones in on what they want to do and keep at it, he said, The Ragland Boys could be Chattanooga’s next big thing in hip-hop.

Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.