What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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Editor's Note: This story originally appeared May 16 in What's Up! JOCELYN MURPHY NWA Democrat-Gazette How do hip hop artists in Northwest Arkansas begin to make a name for themselves? Who is already working the scene here? Is there even a place in the culture for a new artist? CACHE (Creative Arkansas Community Hub & Exchange) and West Coast hip hop artist and rapper Murs are hoping to answer these questions while establishing the infrastructure needed for hip hop artists to flourish here. Enter Groundwaves — a monthly community hip hop open mic and mentorship series birthed at The Music District in Fort Collins, Colo., and now expanding for the first time to Springdale. During the six-month program, Murs will arrive in Springdale on the third Tuesday of each month beginning May 18 to preside over an open mic event, which is free and open to the public. He and the rest of the audience will give performers feedback in real time, and the following day, those artists can schedule one-on-one meetings with Murs for the mentorship side of the series. It's a format Murs proposed as a way to get more young people involved in the art, while strengthening the talent and the community. "Kids feel as if putting music on Soundcloud or a streaming site makes them a musician or makes them a rapper, and in my era, there was a lot more to it," Murs explains. Though he admits he's never had a Platinum record, Murs got his start selling his albums out of a backpack in cities across Europe. He cut his teeth in the industry learning how to win over rooms full of people who didn't even speak the same language. Gaining fans through a reputation for putting on one of the best live performances in rap, Murs has now worked with some of the biggest names over hip hop's last three decades and has the career demonstrative of his teachings for these burgeoning artists. "Now, a lot of younger rappers are just performing over their vocals, and that's something that's not allowed at Groundwaves — no hate speech, and no performing over your own vocals," he says. "That's how I grew up, and I think it's essential that people hear you and feel you. That's the beauty of punk rock and screamo; it's not technically sound or hitting the right notes, but you feel it. I think hip hop had that same element and, as everything goes digital, we're losing that feel." Sam Lopez, creative communities coordinator with CACHE, agrees there's a showmanship required of performers in the genre that can only come from time spent in front of, and learning to connect with, an audience. "You do need to, every now and then, be reminded that maybe you're not as good as you think you are. And maybe you're great. But you need to be comfortable in those spaces and being critiqued," Lopez points out. He clarifies that criticism doesn't mean someone's art is bad; it's the process through which growth is possible. "We need a place where that's OK. Where it's safe to take the mic, to say what you need to say, and be open to the opinions of other people so that you can grow. And that's on our community as a whole to be open to letting people like that into their space and holding the audience to respect it." Groundwaves will be one of the first steps toward building community around that idea, Murs says. He calls it a safe space but not a safe space. "We're going to respect your pronoun; we're going to respect your sexual orientation; we're going to respect your race; we're going to respect your political view. But you can't suck. And if you suck, we're going to let you know," he promises. That doesn't translate to a free license to come and lambaste performers, though. Just as streaming services can create a false sense of accomplishment for artists, the Internet also allows mean-spirited voices or even trolls to criticize without accountability, Murs asserts. At Groundwaves, particularly vocal audience members will be called out to address the performer directly. It's not a system meant to shame or embarrass; it's meant to encourage constructive criticism that will truly help the artists improve. www.malco.com www.malco.com www.malco.com www.malco.com YEAR IN REVIEW 6 WHAT'S UP! DECEMBER 26, 2021-JANUARY 1, 2022 Laying The Groundwork Program aims to foster hip hop in NWA From May to October 2021, Groundwaves(AR) gave hip hop and rap artists in Northwest Arkansas the stage and the opinionated audience needed to improve their craft. (Courtesy Photo/Kind Dub, LLC) See Hip Hop Page 38