Common, Mobb Deep, Freeway & More Set to Perform at The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival

Ambrosia For Heads is proud to announce our media partnership with the 11th annual Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival. Kicking off July 8, and running through July 11, this year’s series of events drives emphasis to the very spirit of Hip-Hop culture. 2015’s gala includes performances by Academy and Grammy award-winning Common, Mobb Deep (amidst the 20th anniversary of The Infamous), as well as Freeway, Lion Babe, Charles Hamilton, Skyzoo, Pitchblack Brass Band, John Robinson & PVD, and DJ Rob Swift. The Brooklyn, New York based affair will be co-hosted by Uncle Ralph McDaniels and Torae. As always, additional performers and guests are anticipated at this all-ages show. Tickets are for sale online, with multiple packages still available.

Ambrosia For Heads is a site that I rock with as a fan on a daily basis As a businessman, we understand that their audience is the heart and soul of our Festival. Partnering with them makes so much sense. Whether it be creating new and exciting content or having fun with our deep archive, I look forward to furthering out joint mission of advocating for the culture,” said BKHHF founder Wes Jackson.

Leaders Of The New School at 2012 BKHHF

Leaders Of The New School at 2012 BKHHF, by Photo Rob

Specific to 2015’s headliner, Jackson added, “Ever since we started the Festival in 2005 we have been trying to get Common. From ‘Soul By The Pound’ to ‘Kingdom,’ and all those albums in between Common has been a true soldier for Hip-Hop. I have no doubt he his gonna bring all of Chicago with him and help us take our little jam to new heights.

Jay Electronica at 2014 BKHHF, by Photo Rob

Jay Electronica at 2014 BKHHF, by Photo Rob

Since its inception, the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival has been a community-driven show, no matter how major the artists who take the stage. A proud civic event, BKHHF is a venue where the crowd and the stage are not distant, in feet or in theory. Whether performing or not, artists (often accompanied by their families) fill the crowd, admiring each other and the borough in which they live, shop, work, and play. By design, this open-air festival aims to engage all in a demonstration of Hip-Hop showmanship, art, style, and responsibility.

Kanye West and Q-Tip at 2011 BKHHF, by Joe Conzo

Kanye West and Q-Tip at 2011 BKHHF, by Joe Conzo

Each year, the BKHHF brings surprises—not simply on a “who brings who out” level, but rather—who wants to directly connect with their audience? There is a reason why iconic groups like A Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Black Moon, Nice & Smooth, De La Soul, and Leaders Of The New School have trusted this stage with new chapters in their legacy. Conversely, this platform has been a powerful pedestal in the careers of Kendrick Lamar, Fashawn, Rhymefest, Curren$y, Jay Electronica, and Dizzy Wright. The stage, fellowship, and fanfare celebrates all eras, and many styles—a reflection of Brooklyn’s own diversity and evolution. With an exciting lineup, and an engaging week of events, dialogue, and education, 2015 promises to only raise the bar.

Here is a rundown of the 2015 Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival’s itinerary:

Hip-Hop Institute
Wednesday, July 8th 2015

A one day conference ‘Hip-Hop, Technology and Reforming and Re-investing in our community’ presented by The Hip-Hop Institute & Brooklyn Bodega in partnership with the 2015 Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival and The Women’s Center at Medgar Evers College.

Panels Include:

“Bring the Wealth Back to Our Community”
“How Tech Changed the Music Game”
“The Battle for Marianna” – A discussion with journalists/filmmakers Daryl Khan and Robert Stolarik
“The Hip-Hop Police and criminal justice reform – what can we really be doing”

Dummy Clap Film Festival
Thursday, July 9 2015

The Dummy Clap Film Festival – celebrating film as a mode of Hip-Hop expression. This year we are collaborating with Hush Hip-Hop Tours to bring you the screening of 1994’s Fresh, starring Sean Nelson and Brooklyn’s own N’Bushe Wright, and directed by Boaz Yakin.

Open Bar provided by The Brooklyn Brewery
Location: HOA Gallery 408 Marcus Garvey Blvd, Brooklyn, NY 11216

Juice Hip Hop Exhibition
Friday, July 10, 2015

The B-Boys and Girls, graffiti artist,s emcees, and deejays laid the blueprint for Hip-Hop culture. JUICE celebrates this legacy by gathering dancers, deejays, emcees, sneaker heads, beat makers, and visual/graffiti artist to convene under one building for two days to propel the culture forward.

Events include: Dance Off,  Salute The DJ, Beat Showcase, Show & Prove Performance/Who Got BARS Cypher, Sneaker Gallery, and Art Gallery.
Location:TBA

Festival Concert
Saturday, July 11 2015

The famed, flagship final day of the 11th annual festival with key performers such as:

Common
Mobb Deep
Lion Babe
Freeway
Charles Hamilton
Skyzoo

Venue: 50 Kent Ave
Doors Open at 1pm

In a world increasingly reliant on images, TBHHF saw an opportunity to expand its messaging beyond the music and into visuals. Said Jackson:

“As we entered our second decade of The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival we realized that the most important part of our event, our movement, is our spirit. That spirit of independence, self determination and the spirit of community. We are more than names on a poster or celebrities in the crowd. As one of the few remaining independent festivals and part of an even smaller number of minority and women owned operations, we realize our cause and mission are bigger than ourselves. As organizers the challenge becomes how do we communicate that to Hop-Hop fans from Crown Heights to Berlin? We realized the answer was words are great but images are better. Our visuals this year needed to be killer.

Earlier this year the Museum of the City of New York opened an exhibit called “Hip-Hop Revolution” featuring the work of famed Hip-Hop photographers Martha Cooper, Jeanette Beckman and Joe Conzo. Joe has been our official photographer, along with Photo Rob, since 2009. He is an elder, a mentor and positive spirit that has spread the love of Hip-Hop all over the world. We are honored to have him as a part of our family. His exhibit at MCNY inspired our art direction this year.

We felt that the perfect way to capture the energy of our great event was to create a living breathing photo exhibit much like “Hip-Hop Revolution.” Joe and Rob have been doing this for us for years. So we thought why not build upon their great photos for this year’s poster and visual inspiration. Then we said let’s go a little deeper and pick few more photographers whose work we admire and mirror our mission.
The legendary Jamel Shabazz was doing what we do before we even had a kernel of an idea. From “A Time Before Crack”and “The Last Sunday in June” Jamel has been documenting the beauty of Hip-Hop, Brooklyn and the world. As we engage in the very heavy social issues facing the Hip-Hop Nation we knew his work would say the 1,000 words we could only hope to write.

On the other end was another photographer who had been supporting us from day one not because of any official capacity but based on a shared love of the culture. That would be none other than Mel D. Cole of VillageSlum, one of the best live event photographers around. Mel’s shots of Jay Electronica, Jay-Z, J. Cole and others last year were some of our best.

We reached out to these four brothers and asked if we could use some of their photos as the inspiration for our posters this year. We are honored and thrilled that they said yes. And thanks to the Art Direction of Haks-180 we have produced these five exclusive posters for this year’s Festival. Our own visual representation of this battle that we wage for the betterment of Hip-Hop culture.”

Here is one of the posters in the 11th annual Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival photograph series:

BHHF_poster_semifinal_5 copy

Pharoahe Monch at 2009 BKHHF, by Photo Rob

All photos used by permission from Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival.

Related: Here’s the Full Video of Jay Electronica & Jay Z Performing at The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival (Video)