{"id":11923,"date":"2019-05-22T07:32:45","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T11:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=11923"},"modified":"2019-05-22T07:32:45","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T11:32:45","slug":"boston-answering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/05\/22\/boston-answering\/","title":{"rendered":"As Boston Continues To Exclude Hip Hop, \u2018Boston Answering\u2019 Aims To \u2018Uplift Some Of The City\u2019s Finest Local Artists\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cA cultural response manifested into a show\u201d is how this Saturday\u2019s \u201cBoston Answering\u201d<\/a> show at the Strand Theatre in Boston is described by its organizers, Boston booking and audio and video production outfit HipStory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The lineup features Greater Boston hip hop artists Red Shaydez, Fort\u00e9 and Cliff Notez, as well as piano pop from Photocomfort and disco funk from VQnC. The show\u2019s name is aimed squarely at the Boston Calling Music Festival, the three-day extravaganza in Allston that\u2019s the city\u2019s biggest music event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a complicated thing,\u201d says rapper Cliff Notez, who owns HipStory with saxophonist Tim Hall. \u201cThe whole thing isn\u2019t essentially HipStory goes to war with Boston Calling. It\u2019s less about the wrongs Boston Calling has done or the good they failed to do, but the good one city can do, that we have done, and that we continue to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boston\u2019s hip-hop scene is ascendant. At the 2018 Boston Music Awards<\/a> last December, hip hop dominated. Cousin Stizz was named artist of the year. Cliff Notez won new artist of the year. Oompa was named unsigned artist of the year. Latrell James\u2019s \u201cOkay\u201d won song of the year. STL GLD was live artist of the year. Joyner Lucas\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m Not Racist\u201d was awarded video of the year.<\/p>\n

\"Latrell<\/a>
Latrell James performs at the 2017 Boston Music Awards. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But hip hop artists still feel excluded from Boston\u2019s music ecosystem, frustrated by the lack of places to perform, hostile treatment, and, notoriously, venues that never book hip hop.<\/p>\n

Then in January, the Boston Calling Music Festival<\/a> announced the lineup for its May 24 to 26, 2019, events, headlined by Twenty One Pilots, Tame Impalia and Travis Scott. The 2018 edition had included Boston rappers STL GLD and Cousin Stizz. But for this weekend\u2019s festival, the only emerging Boston talent in the lineup is Sidney Gish. A handful of other acts have Massachusetts ties\u2014Guster, Clairo and Pile\u2014but they\u2019re already established as national touring acts. And none of these acts perform hip hop.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately this year it\u2019s one of those things where we talked about it and it just didn\u2019t work out in the programming, but it\u2019s not like we don\u2019t want to do it. In the future we\u2019ll do it more,\u201d Boston Calling\u2019s longtime talent buyer Trevor Solomon told Boston Magazine<\/a>. \u201cI think there\u2019s a great local hip hop scene here and we want to support it as much as possible, but every year it\u2019s just different the way the booking works out. We only have so many acts we can book.\u201d<\/p>\n

So a few months back, when HipStory was planning a show, intern Mu\u00f1eca Diaz, who also plays bass in Cliff Notez\u2019s band, suggested \u201cBoston Answering\u201d\u2014and a powerful idea was unleashed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hearing a lot of support from the community,\u201d Cliff Notez says. \u201cThey just get it as soon as they hear the name.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Boston<\/a>
“Boston Answering” from HipStory. (Courtesy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With \u201cBoston Answering” on May 25, the event webpage<\/a> says, \u201cHipStory aims to create a larger platform and fanbase to uplift some of the city\u2019s finest local artists. Boston Answering is a showcase for some of Boston\u2019s premiere local talent. It is an affordable alternative to the festival, for those interested in seeing Boston\u2019s most talented artists showcased and amplified. It will take place the same weekend as Boston Calling, Saturday, May 25th. \u2026 This is our chance to show the city what incredible talent and power Boston born and bred artists can produce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of Boston\u2019s biggest issues is its attachment to its national\/international identity,\u201d Cliff Notez wrote on Facebook yesterday, \u201cthrough things like the development of the Seaport, its ridiculous gentrification caused by several things including, but not limited to, an influx of students, and a massive festival focused solely on bringing national acts to Boston. All of this is at the detriment it\u2019s local identity, us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cliff<\/a>
Cliff Notez performs during a Boston Music Awards New Music Series show at Hojoko at the Verb Hotel, May 18, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBoston Calling is just one example of a lot of stress and pain that we\u2019ve felt as a hip hop community,\u201d Cliff Notez tells me. \u201cIt\u2019s a microcosm of the larger conversation. \u2026 It hurts. We\u2019re not accepted in the city and we\u2019re not being accepted in this national spotlight. At the same time, we have something extremely special here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s structural racism. Of course. That\u2019s always it,\u201d Cliff Notez says. \u201cI\u2019m not saying these people are directly racist. \u2026 It lets them be comfortable and nobody reprimands them for not including hip hop. It\u2019s not like we\u2019re trying to reprimand them. We\u2019re like, hey, something is going on here you should probably check out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cliff<\/a>
Cliff Notez (from left), Tim Hall and Oompa perform at Somerville’s Evolution of Hip Hop Festival in Union Square, Sept. 29, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cliff Notez notes that HipStory has been doing well. They\u2019ve partnered with the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture to help energize the city\u2019s Uphams Corner cultural district and program the city\u2019s Strand Theatre there. They\u2019ve received funding from The Boston Foundation. They booked and hosted one of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts\u2019 \u201cMFA Late Nites\u201d and at the Hubweek innovation conference. Cliff Notez curated a three-concert \u201cSketchbook\u201d series from January to March at Atwood\u2019s Tavern, a Cambridge usually known for booking Americana acts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that Boston Calling\u2019s goal is to bring national acts to the city of Boston, but I think that\u2019s really backwards, especially when you look at hip hop,\u201d Notez says. \u201cA major entity is coming into Boston, using the Boston name. Its goal is only to bring national acts into Boston, but not uplift the community it\u2019s utilizing. \u2026 You probably should put us on these stages if you want to make some changes in the world. What makes us awesome is we\u2019re going to continue to do it and not be downtrodden. We\u2019re not going to give up. \u2026 I feel like we don\u2019t have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cA cultural response manifested into a show\u201d is how this Saturday\u2019s \u201cBoston Answering\u201d show at the Strand Theatre in Boston is described by its organizers, Boston booking and audio and video production outfit HipStory. The lineup features Greater Boston hip hop artists Red Shaydez, Fort\u00e9 and Cliff Notez, as well as piano pop from Photocomfort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11933,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[441,170,570],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11923"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11923"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11941,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11923\/revisions\/11941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}