The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival (BHF) is an annual celebration of Hip-Hop music and culture. It is produced The Bodega Agency a wholly owned subsidiary of Brooklyn Bodega, Inc.
Overview
According to the official BHF website, "Our aim is to highlight Hip-Hop’s legacy as an agent of artistic progression, community building and social change."
The festival is held during July at the Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is situated on the shores of the East River and is accessible by multiple subway and bus lines, the thruway and New York Water Taxi service.
Established in 2005, BHF has grown from a parking lot in Williamsburg to the largest hip hop event in New York City. The Festival's format centers around its Hip-Hop Performance Day and includes a variety of affiliated hip hop cultural events that occur in the days leading up to the festival. Besides its music programming, the festival also features a "Family Day" segment that has music, performances, demonstrations and seminars from a host of family centric organizations.
In 2012, the Festival continued its new format of programming with “Busta & Friends” and topped Festival history with a record-breaking 30,000+ in attendance (20,000 on its Performance Day). Busta Rhymes & Friends would feature classic hits performed with Spliff Star and a surprise line-up that included Buckshot of Black Moon, Smif-N-Wessun, Lil’ Fame of M.O.P., Slick Rick, Reek Da Villain. The icing on the cake was a Leaders Of The New School reunion with Charlie Brown and Dinco D which was 19 years in the making. The night ended with L.O.N.S performing “Scenario” and bringing Phife and Q-Tip out just as the cops killed the power.
According to Time Out, "(The BHF is) (d)ifferent from the bigger hip-hop packages like Rock the Bells that will be touring the U.S. all summer, this is a show that seems purely for New York, and it affords an opportunity for the artists to give back... Local businesses also showed their support, with booths ranging from Brooklyn Brewery to FLUD Watches and Hoodman Clothing." In 2010, NY1 interviewed Hip-Hop artist Torae who said "It's just awesome, you know, for new, upcoming artists like myself to be out here and perform with legends and get to touch people from young to old, every race." Steele (rapper) of the hip-hop duo Smif-N-Wessun added "It's packed -- no violence -- so it dispels all the myths that hip-hop brings violence and stuff. It's beautiful out there, it's young kids out there, it's older people out there. It's people from all walks."
The BHF is owned by Brooklyn Bodega, which uses the proceeds from the festival to support year-round cultural programming including but not limited to: the blogazine and online home BrooklynBodega.com, and most recently The Bodega Agency, our boutique marketing and branding operation.
History
The Festival has been held yearly since 2005 when it was founded by Wes Jackson, entrepreneur and current executive director and President of Brooklyn Bodega and co-founders, Gregory Trani and Douglas Nettingham. Since 2006, it has been hosted by Ralph McDaniels, who was responsible for creating Video Music Box, the first music video show focused exclusively to an urban market—broadcast on public television.
Below is a listing of past BHF performers:
2005
Brand Nubian
Little Brother
Leela James
Medina Green
Ge-ology
Amir
2006
Big Daddy Kane
Lupe Fiasco
Rhymefest
Sleepy Brown
The Procussions
Panacea aka Mathis Mootz
Strange Fruit Project
Cap Cee
DJ Eclipse
Rik Ducci
Ralph McDaniels aka “Uncle Ralph” of Video Music Box
2007
Ghostface Killah
Consequence
Skillz
Dres (rapper) of Black Sheep
Large Professor
Emily King, Tanya Morgan PackFM El Michels Affair J.Period Ralph McDaniels aka “Uncle Ralph” of Video Music Box
2008
KRS-One
DJ Premier
Buckshot
Blu & Exile
Mickey factz
88-Keys
Zaki Inrahim
Homeboy Sandman
J.Period
Ralph McDaniels aka “Uncle Ralph” of Video Music Box
2009
Pharoahe Monch
Styles P
DJ Premier
Dead Prez (stic.man and M-1) Grand Puba Smif-n-Wessun(Tek and Steele) Torae and Marco Polo J.Period Ralph McDaniels aka “Uncle Ralph” of Video Music Box Brown Bag All Stars Children Of The Night Donny Goines Keys N Krates Nyle Eagle Nebula Brokn Englsh Tiye Phoenix Metermaids Tanya Morgan Homeboy Sandman Chip Fu aka Roderick Roachford Kel Spencer DJ Parler DJ Misbehaviour