[Dryerase] AGR Hip Hop Peace Summit

[Shawn G]

Asheville Global Report
www.agrnews.org

Hip Hop Peace Summit lands at Civic Center

By Liz Allen

Asheville, North Carolina, Sept. 3 (AGR)—  “Party in Peace” was the theme 
last Saturday for the Hip Hop Peace Summit/Petey Pablo concert.  The Petey 
Pablo concert had originally been scheduled for July 25, to be held at 
McCormick stadium during the Bele Chere festival. It was canceled at the 
last minute by the Asheville Parks and Recreation Department and Buncombe 
County, out of fear that urban entertainment sparks violence.  Ray Mapp of 
Purpose Publications, who put on the event, said the concert was difficult 
to reschedule.  The purpose of the Hip Hop Summit was to remove the fear, 
demonstrated in the sudden cancellation, through emphasizing the positive, 
nonviolent side of Hip Hop.
“We came up with the ‘Party in Peace’ slogan for one reason,” explained PR 
person and MC for the event Michael Hayes, “that’s like, to come in, party 
your ass off and when you leave outta’ there you leave like this [holds up 
two fingers], throwing up the peace sign.”
The summit included vendors who served to educate attendees on 
entrepreneurship as a positive outlet.  Gene Eddison of Platinum T-shirt and 
Design said his two year old business doing screen printing and heat 
transfers grew out of his experience making T-shirts for different 
neighborhoods.  Eddison said being African American can make  finding 
start-up capital difficult, but he succeeded by seeking out other Black 
entrepreneurs who were interested in supporting him and his project.  He 
tells young people “staying focused is the toughest thing….basically believe 
in yourself, don’t let others try and bring you down.”
The Peace Summit included a talent show, which, according to Hayes, received 
an overwhelming response.  The event included groups from the Asheville area 
as well as those from all over North Carolina, and was recorded to send to 
industry representatives.  The winner of the talent competition was Shatura 
featuring YGB (Young, Gifted, and Black).  Shatura, one of the handful of 
female artists performing, said at 16 she felt “blessed to be experiencing 
things” and that “people have been encouraging and respectful” of her 
efforts.
Other artists included NWO (Nationwide Outlaws), a Goodie Mob-esque six 
piece group from different parts of the country who record their own beats 
and tracks at their studio in Hendersonville.  Also included was the 
Assassins, whose style interlaced singing harmonies with rapping lyrics, a 
la Bone Thugs and Harmony, but with sweeter and prettier vocals.  The 
artists who performed in the talent show also opened up later that night for 
Petey Pablo in front of an audience of almost a thousand.
The talent show encountered difficulties  when it began to run over the 
scheduled time of five o’clock. Civic Center employees said people had to 
clear out so they could set up for the concert -- an assertion refuted by 
Richard Ball, the lighting technician, who claimed that the stage changes 
involved “nothing really since everything [stage, lights, etc.] stays up,” 
but that the employees “have to close the doors so we can count how many 
people show up.”  The Summit crew was told that they would have to wait for 
the arrival of the union workers who ran the equipment before the show could 
continue. Ball explained that the union was in charge of running the 
spotlight, an item that was not being used for that segment of the event.
“Since we are paying for the lights, the stage, we should be able to do it 
how we should have it…if the Civic Center was having one of these heavy 
metal groups, these wrestling groups,  they get to do what they want to, 
they pay for whatever.  But the way I’m looking at it, it’s a black and 
white thing. If we were white we probably would be able to do it the way we 
want to,” explained Ali Beaird, who was filming the event.   The response to 
being cut short was quickly running through shortened sets and Hayes leading 
a short call and response of “Can’t Stop Hip Hop.”
Hip Hop has received a lot of negative press recently, being blamed in the 
Asheville Citizen-Times for causing the shooting deaths that occurred 
earlier this summer at the Patton Avenue Pub, a misconception re-emphasized 
in an article calling the summit a failure because it didn’t draw large 
crowds.  Ray Mapp said Parks and Recreation and the City were responsible 
for the low turnout because they canceled the original concert. “[We] had a 
challenge to show it was really going to happen, it was an uphill battle.”  
He said the Civic Center manager, David Pisha, was very cooperative and 
reasonable, and even spoke to the police in an effort to get security 
reduced to a reasonable amount.  According to Officer R.H. Lance, there were 
fourteen Asheville Police Department officers working the event, the same 
number usually present at a sold-out show.  Mapp said there were others  
involved in hindering the success of the concert. For example, there are 
reports that the Civic Center told callers interested in tickets that the 
concert was sold out.
However, there are more Hip Hop shows and Peace Summits planned for the 
future. Mapp says they hope to hold the summit annually. He believes that 
the summit was influential just by putting out the message “Party in Peace.”
Summit organizers are now in the process of compiling information from a 
questionnaire handed out to students to see what can be done to ensure young 
people attend future events. Richard Cooper, also of Purpose Publications, 
plans on booking big Hip Hop shows twice a year in Asheville.
Purpose Publications’ biggest seller is a poster listing over 200 inventions 
by Black inventors, and is currently part of the school curriculum in the 
Columbus, Ohio city school system.  In business for several years, its focus 
is “on educating the public that unity is stronger than being separated.”  
This point was reinforced by the diversity of the crowd at the concert, 
which consisted of people of all ages, but had a large number of young 
people.  Mapp also added that both the summit, the concert and the after 
party went on without a violent incident.  Azariyah of Space Mountain, a 
group out of Morganton who performed that evening, said he felt the message 
got across and explained that with Space Mountain, as with other Hip Hop 
groups, “the essence of our message is positive.”




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