I Love Hip Hop in Morocco

Name of Event: I Love Hip Hop in Morocco
Organizer and location of event: Joshua Asen, Louis Cristillo, and Hisham Aidi
Teachers College, Columbia University
11/12, Wednesday 7-10pm
Amount of hours of event: 3 hours


The “I Love Hip Hop in Morocco” is an interesting documentary film screened at Teachers College which revealed the society's changes through the dreams of hip-hop artists. The film addressed the hopes of young people who strongly feel that hip-hop should be acknowledged as their culture. Since Morocco is an Arab Muslim kingdom, having hip-hop as one of their cultures is unacceptable. In Morocco, exposing hip-hop in the country is sinning and corrupting the faith of Muslim. When other Hip-Hop music groups tried to launch a concert before, about 14 people got arrested because they banned the country’s law. In order to make changes, the hip-hop artists, who think that hip-hop culture should be appreciated, took risky steps and decided to launch the festivals. The hip-hop artists think that celebrating the hip-hop music as one of the culture aspects is same thing as the right to have the freedom of speech. The co-director Josh Asen and Jennifer Needleman traveled to Morocco in search for people who represented the hip-hop music. When Hip-hop artists decided to launch concerts in their communities, it was difficult for them to find sponsors who would support them in funding. Therefore, Josh Asen realized that they are in a need of a desperate financial support, he approached the Coca-Cola and U.S. Embassy to sponsor. He approached Terry White, who is U.S. ambassador in Morocco to find ways for them to get the funding. After organizing the budgets and resolving the financial issues, they decided to have a festival in three cities: Marrakech, Casablanca, and Meknes. Thousands of people came to the concert to celebrate the first hip-hop festival. I learned that Hip-hop is viewed completely different in other countries. In U.S., hip-hop is another music genre that people appreciate. However, the perspective and attitude of hip-hop is looked in a more critical stance in Morocco. It was interesting to see how hip-hop could be one way to express the voices of people, since people in morocco definitely struggle over the freedom of speech. Through their dreams, hopes, and concerns, the hip-hop artists took risks in order to expose the hip-hop music to their country.