Hip HOP CINEMA! Yea Boy-eee!

The people @ solSource who bring you the fabulous annual Can a Sista Rock a Mic festival are moving into the realm of film, bringin us the Hip Hop Cinema to Washington DC.

Saturday, January 31, 2008 2:00 PMFREE@ Historical Society of DC

801 K Street, NW

at Mount Vernon SquareWashington, DC 20001

with panelists:

Head-Roc (Godisheus)

LabTekwon

Tyrone Norris (Rosetta Stoned)

Kobie Nichols (Hot Topic TV Show)

moderated by Konyka Dunson program host with DCTV and WPFW

Special appearance by The Package, & Mental Salvation Radio's Enoch 7th Prophet

Musical backdrop by DJ Jav

Explosively tracing the story of a group of underground hip hop MCs and DJs from the early 1980s to the present day, Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme is a work-in-progress documentary film that explores the world of improvisational rap—the rarely recorded art form of rhyming spontaneously, or "off the top of the head."

Made over the course of more than seven years—mostly with borrowed cameras from a non-profit co-operative of B-Boys, DJs, and MCs known as The Center for Hip Hop Education—Freestyle takes the viewer on a journey through the previously unexamined dimensions of hip hop as a spiritual and community-based art form.

Following some of the best MCs ever to bless the mic, Freestyle features legendary battles including those of the film's hero, Supernatural, pitted against his arch nemesis, Craig G. As these artists improvise poetry out of the mix of language, politics and culture that make up their lives, we discover revolutionary worlds where the English language is subverted and re-appropriated as a tool of economic and social empowerment.

Freestyle is experimental in its nature as improvisational cinema. No showing of the film is ever the same experience. By combining the best of independent documentary filmmaking with the hip hop mix tape format, director Kevin Fitzgerald offers us a context in which to view living art as a social critique through story and rhyme.

You are invited to participate in an audience discussion with some of the best in the area's Hip Hop Scene, a preview of Rest in Beats*, a first look into The DC Hip-Hop History Project**, and a screening of the D.C. music video The Warning (feat. Sunrock, The Package, Enoch, Grammy nominated Kokayi & more). *Rest In Beats is an original and independent documentary that pays homage to record producers of the past through intimate conversations with renowned record producers of today.

The documentary comes at a time where fear and uncertainty often deafens inspiration and creativity in the recording business. Rest In Beats allows viewers to explore the musical influences and historical sources of inspiration behind today's hit makers, though not without observing the milestones that served as catalysts in ushering in the music industry as we know it today. It is a timely, educational and entertaining work of art for students of music and general music-lovers.

**The DC Hip-Hop History Project is a movie currently in production, which takes a look at history of hip-hop in Washington, D.C. from 1985 to present.