Now is it Filipino with an F or a P? It must be an F because as most Fil-Ams would agree, it’s not Filipino without food and family. In Sacramento, hip hop artists, break dancers, designers, and other creatives came together at Sol Collective on 21st Street and Broadway to celebrate Filipino American History Month. They came from as far as Vallejo, Stockton, and South San Francisco to share what it means to be Fil-Am. The heat resonates from the thin sachets of lumpia simmering in the boiling bubbles of Crisco oil. Dominique Marquez, 26 with her long silky hair, tank top, tribal ink tattoo, and shorts helps her mom "Nanay" with her brow covered in sweat over the open fire of the gas gri

If Sacramento thinks it can dance, participants at this year’s Sac Hop had better prove it. Half of the event will be devoted to three-on-three break-dancing battles while the latter portion will pit participants one-on-one for all-styles battles. This competition – in which 32 dance crews are expected to participate – will benefit Mills Middle School in Rancho Cordova, where event coordinator Larry Oliver expects about 500 guests. “I’m tired of sub-par events,” Oliver said. He’s been dancing since he was 11 and helped create world-renowned and award-winning crew Flexible Flav in 1999. He said he’s grown weary of the competitions he’s frequented around California because they’re all so s

Sac State's Union Ballroom was transformed for Cap City Culture on Thursday night. Some of the highlights of the evening were a DJ scratchfest with some of the top local DJs, a performance by the Beatbox world champion, Butterscotch, sets from the top 3 finalists of "America's Got Talent,"  and a break dance competition.                         

Over the last few years, the term "hip hop is dead," has been thrown around more than the neighborhood football. In an age of technology where making a simple beat with a bootlegged audio production application and altering your voice with Auto-Tune in order to sound like T-Pain is enough to get "bedroom rappers/producers/djs" signed, it's no wonder people are beginning to feel like the art is lost. While most people are tossing around this insult to hip hop, few are offering any sort of solution. I say few, because there are some purists out there who are putting in the effort, energy and time to study where hip hop started, where it has been and where it is going. He calls for somethin

Social worker, event planner, and occasional singer/rapper Aria Des Jardins scheduled KRS-One to perform a benefit concert Monday night when she heard that the Washington Neighborhood Center was facing total closure. The center has been supportive of Sacramento's hip hop community and had held many hip hop concerts, she explained. "Hip hop is about people, things that don't have anything to do with entertainment," said Eric Duran, associate advocate for the Temple of Hiphop. The organization was formed by emcee and peace advocate KRS-One, who is known for his Stop the Violence campaign as well as his efforts pioneering hip hop culture. Sacramento's young people proved that they would hav