Hip-hop benefit to bring a new sound

The hip-hop scene in Bloomington is emerging Saturday to revive its presence in the community and raise money for the venue that has let musicians express themselves through music.

For the past 18 years, Rhino’s Youth Media Center has served the community.
It has offered an after-school refuge for high school students and music venue for all ages.

Rhino’s assistant director and booking agent David Britton said the venue has been a part of his life since he was younger.

“I went there as a kid and it was really important to me,” Britton said. “I went off to college and came back interested in sound engineering, and the venue was just comfortable to me, and I really care about the mission.”

Britton said he thought of the idea for a benefit show after the venue’s soundboard broke.

Rhino’s had to start renting one in order to keep being the host of shows.
“Buying a new board will save us renting costs,” Britton said. “It will also improve the overall sound quality of the venue, which is definitely needed.”

The new soundboard will cost $1,850.
 
Though the club owners have raised some funds, Britton said he hopes Sunday’s show will push them over that edge.

Adopting Britton’s idea, Rhino’s employee Erin Hanner took the project and ran with it, eventually recruiting a line-up of artists.

The lineup includes Freddie Bunz, DJ Wally Wonder, A.C.E. O.N.E & Big Skittz are SEMI-PROS, Anti-Swag Fiend Party, Stakula and Bankenstein’s Monster and Rattlesnake and the Church of FreshBeets. Headlining the evening will be C-Ray Walz.

“Basically the benefit show has become the brainchild of my friend Erin,” DJ Wally Wonder, aka Jeff Barrows, said. “I agreed to play because it sounds like a really good opportunity to support the venue but also support the fading hip-hop community by getting it involved again.”

Barrows said in the past two years he has seen a change in the authentic hip-hop.
The hip-hop sound has started  to be overcomed by more of a style he called “blog-happy,” which gains its popularity on the web.

Barrow said with spring coming, he wants to rejuvenate the classic hip-hop scene.
“I want to reach out to all four elements of hip-hop,” Barrows said. “That is, graffiti writers, break dancers, rappers and DJ’s.”
Assisting Barrows in this goal for Sunday will be Bloomington break-dance crew B-Boys and B-Girls.
“All of these groups are about getting more momentum, a boost of culture that reminds people of the time where hip-hop was kind of a big thing,” Barrows said.
The upcoming event will help to raise money for the venue.  

Barrows said it will also allow the hip hop scene to reach a different crowd.

“We’re big on the party scene,” he said. “Since Rhino’s is an all-age club, we hope to make an impression on the younger crowd. We want to start a movement and get kids more interested.”

Barrows also reaches out to the IU student population to help recreate the hip-hop scene and keep the culture alive by coming out to the hip-hop shows and bringing everyone together.

“Hopefully as a venue we will continue to grow and provide even more free arts and media programs for teens,” Britton said. “I’d like to see more national artists come through too, but locally, I would like to see some of the older crowd bands share the stage with the kids who are just starting out in
music.”