“Brazil is a poor country even though it has the rich places. Ever since I was a child growing up I was always an explorer, and that’s how I found Hip-Hop. I was listening to American music and culture. I always had that knowledge about what was going on outside and wanted to be a part of that in the world. Now I’m here touring in the world, and I feel part. When I go back to Brazil I’m not the same BK that came here”
BK in Hip-Hopulation
As we celebrate 50 years of one of the most important movements in the history of the world, what started as an artform built from the scratch of a turntable, needled in amongst the struggle of the masses, is now worth billions of dollars – so what does that mean for the authenticity to Hip-Hop in amongst one of the greatest global living crisis’ that the modern world has ever seen?
In Hip-Hopulation, former music video director Nick Donnelly speaks to Hip-Hop artists around the world about their personal struggles, and triumphs, dreaming of a way out of their own tough backgrounds, told through the hopes of Hip-Hop.
Within Hip-Hopulation are stories of overcoming the seemingly impossible, to inspire hope to their own communities, just like Hip-Hop did originally half a century ago. From feeling the passion of Indian artist Prabh Deep who rose from making music in a windowless room in blazing heat, to independently topping the Itunes charts of a country with a population of 1.4 billion people, to the tragic recollections of Frenkie reminiscing leaving his home nation during the Bosnian War, only to return and bring graffiti and Hip-Hop to the decaying nation looking to rebuild in the rubble. Read the remarkable story of Ez Mil, from The Philippines, one of the world’s poorest countries, who would sign and make a record with Hip-Hop legend Eminem, to Jiggy Dje, the Dutch Hip-Hop pioneer who now runs a record label employing over 40 people, Silvana Imam a daughter of immigrants in Sweden, Colombian born Italian rapper Egreen and more, as they speak intimately to Nick Donnelly, an artist that has interviewed Hip-Hop artists such as Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Immortal Techique, Statik Selektah and many more.