Global 2018
From June 19th to July 2nd, 2018, six Hip Hop artists traveled to Washington, D.C., Chapel Hill, North Carolina and New York City as part of the Next Level program. Beatboxer Atallah “Double M” Mohamed (Morocco), Dancer Kamran Mamedov (Azerbaijan), MC Ahmed “Afroto” Mohamed (Egypt), MC Cherry “Ya Ya” Khiang (Myanmar), and MC Nem Chan “Mora” Mony (Cambodia) joined team manager Junious Brickhouse to learn more about Hip Hop through workshop and practice, perform for audiences and collaborate with local artists to promote cross-cultural creative exchange and conflict transformation.
With the program through lines of “Arts Education, Cultural Sustainability, Conflict Reconciliation, Community Building, Entrepreneurship, Diversity In Hip Hop and Event/Program Planning ”, Next Level Global was a three-city residency consisting of programming around arts education, professional development workshops, public performances, cultural programming and collaborations. The primary roles of our local partnering organizations were simply to ensure our Global participants had an informed, cultured, experience. Connecting with the project themes, we were able to provide an authentic look into several American Hip Hop communities as well as equip the participants with tools to support their goals.
The second week was held in New York City, with daily artistic skill-building workshops taking place at the Scratch DJ Academy headed up by Next Level Alumnus Dan Chaves aka Dirty Digits. The sessions divided the artist group by discipline, and a Next Level Alumni was the instructor for each. The Next Level Alumni mentors included dancer Fabel “Popmaster Fabel” Pabon, MC Toni Blackman, beatboxer Derick “D-Cross” Cross, DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore Livingston, MC Chane “Big Piph” Marrow and MC Jaci Caprice.
During the fourth cycle, Next Level launch the first-ever Next Level Global Residency Stipends, which are competitively awarded to participants in the Next Level Global Residency to support ongoing work to promote conflict resolution, youth leadership skills and professional development through collaborative Hip Hop projects.
The team is part of a Next Level international contingent of MCs, DJs, beatmakers, and Hip Hop dancers recruited from Next Level countries. See more videos of the team performing here.
Chanmony Nem, aka Mora
The program in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, offered young artists, ranging 5-8 years in age, the opportunity to improve their skills in rap and singing by teaching them how to appreciate music and take their passion for it to teach others how to do the same in the community. Mora is definitely a young superstar motivating young superstars! Her primary focus has disadvantaged youth and people battling colorism in Cambodia. Meridian has shared photographs of Mora’s MC students, sporting her official gear and original logo, funded by Next Level with ECA. Below is the video for a follow-on program at M’lop Tapang (November 22, 2018), a program that supports 22 students.
Cherry Khaing, aka Ya Ya
The proposed project consisted of a series of concerts aimed at bringing all of the elements of hip hop together into one common space in Yangon. The elements to be included were DJ, Beatboxing, Emceeing, Dance, and Graffiti. The goal of this series was to aid in building community, creating networking opportunities, facilitate collaboration, and encouraging an Artist’s economic growth. Ya-Ya unfortunately suffered some health issues, so had initially postpone her work. Meridian will continue to keep ECA updated on her efforts.
Ahmed Mohamed Abdel Meguid, aka AFROTO
AFROTO project, titled Alexandria HIP HOP, wanted to help hip hop artists with performing in the public and assist them in their future careers via music and video productions to their work – overall promoting youth empowerment within their local communities. The stipend supported music production, which included providing opportunities for AFROTO along with other featured artists like dancers, beatboxers and aerosol painters with more exposure to social media via video clips and MC song recordings. Next Level remains in contact with AFROTO and the U.S. Mission to Egypt to have him participate in the Next Level 5.0 Global Academy.
Atallah M Hamed, aka Doubl-M
The beatbox community in Morocco lacked a place where they can learn and practice their art. The project consisted of creating a space that functions as a learning center and a studio dedicated specifically to beatbox in a hip hop school named the Positive School located in Casablanca. Beatboxers have free access to this space, where they can connect and collaborate with one another, as well as create their own content.
Kamran Mamedov
Kamran is still actively teaching adult and youth classes throughout Baku while preparing them for national level competitions. However, his personal focus is on choreographing large scale musicals and theater performances. After his return from Next Level Global he was asked by the U.S Embassy to be a lead choreographer in the musical "A Broadway Story". Next, Kamran plans are to focus on his own production.