Survei Hip Hop

Something I am pursuing is graphic design. Here is a banner I am making for Sphere of Hip Hop . Maybe they'll use it?


This was made not with Adobe Illustrator but with a program like Illustrator called Xara. I'm still trying to figure out the program, for example there are some lines I'd like to get rid of so that it would be easier to see that the abstract figures in the background spell "Sphere of Hip Hop". UPDATE: did just that this morning.

Use your resources in planning an event. Without the help of my friends and people they knew, the event planning for Hip Hop Hunger would not have gone as well as it did. Your resources will of course be different than mine, but I thought it would be helpful for me to provide this list. Here is a list of my resources for promotion and how I used them:

Situational:
[] RHS (Rogers High School) Leadership's room for making posters and lunchtime announcements.
[] Making a watercolor picture advertising the event as a project for Art Class.
[] Inviting friends from church and school.
[] Meeting and inviting friends' friends from church and school.
[] Meeting and inviting friends' friends' friends from church and school (okay you get the point).

Helpful People:
[] Teachers' and students' wisdom with experience
[] Musical Artists I mostly had already had some form of communication with
[] The RHS school newspaper calendar
[] Students in my leadership class and friends who added unique colors to the black and white posters.

NOTE: if you're planning on doing this event at your school, you may want to ask someone in charge if it's okay to make the event information available to everyone in and out of school or to what groups can you advertise the event.

Online I used:
[] The Hip Hop Is Music forums (for asking questions on how to promote an event)
[] BLOGGER.com for making a website to promote the event
[] Local Community Websites
[] Facebook for inviting friends to come
[] The News Tribune's (local paper) online calendar
[] Upcoming Yahoo!'s online events listing
[] ClubFlyers.com for flyers (thanks Leonard for recommending this!)
[] Sphere of Hip Hop's forums for advertising

Other posts in this series:
Introduction to Series
Step 1 - Brainstorm and Timeline
Step 2 - Communication
Tips - Resources for Promotion

Communication is not really a "step," but it is one of the most important things. In the Hip Hop Hunger event, it was my fault that for the longest time I didn't know that my school's portable stage wasn't stable enough for rapping and dancing, so I found that out with only a week before the event will happen. As I write this (I'm writing this on Friday, Feb 22) I'm wondering if someone will be able to donate a portable stage on Wednesday. Other than this, things have ran smoothly because of early communication.

If this is your first event you're planning, you should probably talk with some people you know who have event experience and ask them if they can give you advice. My friends who are in a rock band called Supersonia have had many successful events, about two per year from sophomore year to senior year. Before I planned the Hip Hop Hunger Event I sat down with one of them at a coffee shop and took notes about how to plan an event. So if you know someone at your school who's done something remotely similar to what you are planning, then talk with them.

Forms of Communication

The type of communication you have with people will depend on your event and your goals. In the Hip Hop Hunger event, it was my goal to get some big name acts at it, and I used email with them. It doesn't hurt to ask especially if it's for charity. It doesn't hurt to have at least that small connection with someone in which you invited them to come but they couldn't make it. If the event is for-profit (as opposed to for-charity) you will have to figure out your budget because then it is likely you would pay the artists. (If the event is not some sort of fundraiser or charity event and you want to do it at school, you might have to pay the school or venue.) I also contacted people at my school, and when I talked to them, I just spoke and exchanged phone numbers.

Also it's good to figure out what is the best way of communication for the artist/event-crew-person. If you're using email and you have their phone number, and it takes awhile for them to respond, then try calling! Also if you get stuck in a game of phone tag or if the other person prefers email, then email is a good choice. The best way of course, is to speak face-to-face, and if that's an option it's good to do it at least twice before the event.

Tone and Attitude

Here is a good article about writing effective emails: CD Baby on Writing Good Emails. In whatever way you contact someone, your attitude should be that you are requesting and not forcing anything on someone. Also, if someone agrees to help you, even if it's their job, you should approach them with the attitude that they are doing something extra for you. Your heart should be thankful and if you are, they will remember that.

Other posts in this series:
Introduction to Series
Step 1 - Brainstorm and Timeline
Step 2 - Communication
Tips - Resources for Promotion

Hey Everyone,

I am introducing a blog post series about planning events and concerts.

When I was planning the Hip Hop Hunger event, I looked online for something about planning events and I couldn't find anything. But, I talked with friends and people I knew who had more experience, and I learned a lot.

While I am no expert, I think I can share some helpful information that is worth considering. Keep in mind that you should probably take the advice of someone wiser than me, but hopefully this will get you started.

To get you started here is step 1, when I make a new post in this series, I will bump this post up and write a phrase that summarizes the new post:

Other posts in this series:
Introduction to Series
Step 1 - Brainstorm and Timeline
Step 2 - Communication
Tips - Resources for Promotion

The first question to be answered in event planning is "What will this event be and what is it for?" So start broad and think of all the ideas you can, figure out where you're going with it and go from there.

Someone emailed me with a question about planning events, and this is how I responded:

The first step is to brainstorm and write down every idea you can think of. The ideas can be as out-of-the-box as you want because having something unique helps. Then I'd say to go over your and your friends' ideas, if you're doing this with a group, and pick something. Then after you figure out what it is exactly you want to do, you should talk with the activities coordinator at your school [or an equivalent key person if it's not at school] with a few event dates in mind and find out if any of them will work.

Once you have the event day chosen, you will want to make a timeline stating when you want to contact all the artists/performers and important elements of the show such as sound, lights, and a stage. Earlier is better of course and it's good to plot this out. For the Hip Hop Hunger event, I started contacting artists around November of 2007 even though the concert wasn't until February 08. If the event is something you're passionate about that will make it better, it has to be something you'll be willing to go outside of your comfort zone for. Once you go outside your comfort zone enough times, you'll forget it was there and that will make things easier in the future.

Other posts in this series:
Introduction to Series
Step 1 - Brainstorm and Timeline
Step 2 - Communication
Tips - Resources for Promotion

As an artist and a student, keeping my priorities straight is important. So any free time in which I'm not doing rapping, which won't be much time, will be the time that I update the blog. Obviously I love blogging but it wouldn't make sense to spend more time blogging than making music, right?

The future of this blog. Someone made a very good point that I should upload some of my music on the site or at least link to a site that does have some of my music. I haven't been in a recording studio yet but I hope to sometime in March and then I will have some music to put online. But that might come after the initial wave of attention. Maybe someone will record a video from the Hip Hop Hunger event?

Another thing I might do is a blog post series on how to have a successful event and what goes into that. Hip Hop Hunger is the first event I've ever planned and I learned a lot that I think I could share with people. When I was planning the event I looked for things online and I didn't come across much on event planning, so I talked with people and that was very helpful. A last thing might be to publish some some short stories if I have time, but don't hold your breath, that's at the bottom of my "to-do" list.

Thanks for reading!

I've been blogging off and on for about 3 years and this was a surprise that I don't think you can prepare for. When I first saw that my site was a blog of note, I didn't know how to react, because I only created the Hip Hop Hunger website to promote a single event. I guess that shows how much a difference site design can make. In a semi-panic, I made a post explaining exactly what the site was and who I am, and then thanks to peoples' suggestions, I put a link in the upper-right of the blog so that people could donate to the charity WorldVision because I realized that a lot of people seeing the site would not be able to come to the event.

Also I think I did not react the best way I could have but being a blogger and an artist you could say that I wanted to connect with some people and address them and talk about myself, which doesn't really fit for the Hip Hop Hunger website, which is not supposed to be a blog, but a website for an event that is about something much bigger than me. So, I wanted to add something to the top of the welcome message to put the focus of that site back where it should be, which is that this event is for charity, specifically for hunger in Africa. Someone brought up some good points about food aid on the site at The Cause section. You can follow the conversation there. I tried to answer questions the best I could.