The Council reps Jamaica at hip-hop festival

Jamaican hip-hop collective The Council represented the island at the Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival last weekend in Hartford, Connecticut.

The annual festival, held for the 14th time at Trinity College, from March 28 to 31, showcased hip-hop practitioners from across the US and as far away as Senegal and Japan over four days of activities featuring rappers, break-dancers, graffiti artists, producers and poets.

The Council, comprising Five Steez, Nomad Carlos, The Sickest Drama and Inztinkz, led its own hour-long panel discussion on Friday, March 29, and performed a 30-minute set on the festival's main stage show on Saturday, March 30.

The panel, titled 'First Coast: The Jamaican and wider Caribbean involvement in Hip Hop' was held in a small room filled with dozens of curious listeners, including Trinity College students and fellow festival performers.

Inztinkz and Five Steez broke down the chronology of Jamaican music, spoke about DJ Kool Herc and many of the numerous Jamaican and Caribbean people who have impacted hip hop.

They highlighted a continuum in which the genre sprang from the Jamaican sound system culture by way of Kool Herc, who is often credited as the genre's 'father'.

Inztinkz and Five Steez also gave a brief history of the local underground hip-hop scene and displayed highlights from Pay Attention, a Kingston event series spearheaded by The Council from 2012 to 2015.

The following day, The Council performed on a bill that also featured The ReMINDers, Keur Gui and the Waliyanne Band from Senegal, and headliner OSHUN.

The rappers performed Council Arts and then went into songs from their debut album, Nothing Else Matters.

Standout songs from their performance included Seven O' Clock News, which enlightened the audience on Jamaica's socio-political and economic history and reality, and Promised Land.

"We had a great time on stage," says The Sickest Drama. "The crowd was very interactive and we got a resounding response. We also got to connect with many people in the audience by our merch table (where persons could purchase merchandise)."

Nomad Carlos said, "To the surprise of many, this was actually our first performance as a group with all members. We've been moving as solo acts for years now. However, we have always collaborated and performed together in different formations. The chemistry and coordination came naturally and people really loved that part of our performance."