SITE TOOLS
|
|
|
Echo Park
- The Production
By Steven G. Fullwood
Hip-Hop is 21-years old, and many are looking to capitalize on its wide reaching
- and often overlooked - legacy. Last year, Time Magazine featured a lengthy article on
the movement. Pioneers Kool DJ Herc, Afrikaa Bambataa, and Grandmaster Caz, among others
were being tapped to wax poetic about the good old days. Even the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame sponsored a Hip-Hop conference and has a traveling exhibition of artifacts to boot.
So why not a musical linking it all together?
|
|
|
To answer that call, "Echo Park: The Hip-Hop
Musical" made its world premiere at the Apollo in June 2000. Named after a park in
the Bronx that served as one of Hip-Hop's "stages." One of Echo Park's creators,
writer and producer Sean Couch, said it was important to expose the youth of this
generation to the history of this movement. "This production is a breakthrough for
Hip-Hop, documenting the evolution of such an important cultural influence and garnering
appreciation for this artform," Couch said.
|
|
|
Both Couch and co-writer and producer Kelly Scott have
worked to translate the music, language, culture and fashion of early Hip-Hop in order to
present the most positive aspects of the genre. Scott commented that with "Echo
Park," she and Couch "…want to expose as many [kids] as possible to this
show," in order to help educate today's youth about Hip-Hop's history, its foundation
and values.
The first installment of the trilogy covers 1978-1981 and depicts the establishment of the
DJ as the "party starter" and the launching of the breakdancing phenomenon. The
action takes place in the park where DJs would set-up their equipment, often rigging
lampposts for electricity. In the production, a cast of breakdancers, singers, actors and
graffiti artists from Harlem to the Bronx recreate a jam in the park. This musical also
features legendary Hip-Hop forebearers Kurtis Blow and DJ Hollywood as narrators the
musical.
Part of the appeal of "Echo Park" is that it focuses on a time when Hip-Hop was
more about beats than money. Long before MCs bragged about rocking ice, Hip-Hop was about
being able to "cold rock the party" with lyrical prowess. "Echo Park"
hopes to educate, as well as entertain.
Blow explained that old school Hip-Hop followed "a code of ethics" virtually
absent from today's culture. “New school Hip-Hop encourages violence, drug use and
teen sex,” he lamented. "We as a people need to come together and unite,"
Blow said, "and monitor the records that are being made by the kids of today. We
[must also] monitor and control the record companies, so that they don't release records
that we don't need in our communities."
The second and third installments of the musical will focus on the MC, and finally, on the
worldwide impact of Hip- Hop on prominent mainstream consciousness. M
June 2000 |
|
|
|
|
RLP Ventures, LLC and/or its
suppliers. All rights reserved.