Dhaka: The German Embassy in Dhaka has invited three artistes from the Berlin based Hip Hop Stützpunkt, an urban culture network, to run workshop programs and to connect with the local Hip Hop scene in Dhaka from 10 to 16 November. The main aim of the cultural ambassadors of the Hip Hop Stützpunkt is to build new and long lasting connections with the local Hip Hop scene. In recent years, they have toured China, Russia, India and Indonesia promote Hip Hop culture there.

As part of their Dhaka tour, German artist Akim Walta will give a lecture to describe the development of Hip Hop culture in Germany with slides and short-video presentation on 11 November, 2015 at 7:00pm at the auditorium of Goethe-Institut Bangladesh.

Soulrock (Daniel Sezinando-Ferreira) is a German wide known beat-box artist and vocal percussionist since the end of the 90s who won many beat-box battles and performed on stage with MCs like KRS 1, Juru the Damaja, Busta Rhymes and Method Man. You can find him in Berlin performing in the ‘Mauerpark’ or on stage of the ‘Wintergarten’ as part of the theater production ‘Breakin’ Mozart’.

B-Boy Reese (Michael Schaaf) was born and raised in Potsdam and began dancing in 1998. He started out by participating in many different battles like the national and world-renowned ‘Battle of the Year’ in Germany. Nowadays he is a self-employed dancer and choreographer, working with various artists on a broad spectrum of miscellaneous projects. He always tries evolving his style by practicing different dance styles and having an exchange with other dancers. Michael was part of the official Fifa World Cup Opening Show 2006 in Munich, danced on all kinds of stages from opera to theatre, and appeared in TV-Shows, commercials and music videos. Since it is important for him to give something back to the community he moreover is sharing his knowledge multiple times a week by teaching people who are fascinated by B-Boying.

Zeb.Roc.Ski (Akim Walta) is a pioneer of the European Hip Hop culture and worldwide known through his books (Hip Hop Files, Zebster), magazines (On The Run, MZEE) and events. He founded the first German Rap label MZEE Records in 1992, the From Here To Fame book publishing company in 2004 and the Hip Hop Stützpunkt in 2007. In the early 80s he started as b-boy and graffiti artist, and later organized hundreds of events and festivals, and managed German Rap artists. Since 30 years he is a driving force to support the development of the worldwide Hip Hop culture.

The German artist team gets joined by the Kolkata based rap crew K-Twins. The two brothers took part of ‘Indo-German Hip Hop project’ in 2012 and 2014 which was also supported by the German Foreign Office, the German Embassy in Delhi and the German Consulates in Mumbai and Kolkata.

After the lecture the German artists Soulrock, B-Boy Reese and Zeb.Roc.Ski will answer questions and sign free give-away’s.

The German artistes will be joined by local rappers.

One is Uptown Lokolz — a Bangladesh hip hop collective

The collective Uptown Lokolz was founded by Bigg Spade along with his partner Black Zang and is a driving force in the development of hip hop culture in Bangladesh. They helped to elevate the scene since 2008 and organised and performed on multiple Rap/Hip Hop events along with other musical festivals all around the country and especially in Dhaka City independently for half a decade. In 2014 the American Embassy initiated the ‘Next Level’ project – an hip hop exchange project – and Black Zang got selected for an US residency and was featured on Al-Jazera Network live. He currently runs the one and only Bangladeshi Hip Hop Radio show which is well known as Planet Hip Hop, Frequency 101.6, webcast internationally on www.colours.fm. The show is aired every Tuesday 9:00-11:00pm.

Second is Behave — one of the rare street artists in Dhaka. Behave is a street artist/muralist from Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is introducing depths of graffiti, a modern art form the nation is yet aware of. Deciphering thoughts into art, he has developed a unique style which is equally captivating on walls as it in on canvas.

Another is Tandem Artists: K-Krew, Kolkata’s earliest rap crew, formed in December 2007. The clique started off with MCs; later newer recruits embraced Graffiti art, Breaking and DJing as well. They performed in all major clubs/jams in Kolkata and other Indian cities. ‘Run 033’ is their event organizing outfit via which K-krew curated all-element hip hop jams like ‘Concert Nyt’, ‘Hood-hop’ or ‘Rooftop battles’ in their cityin the last five years. K-krew also co-administers ‘Graff-Kol’, the only group of its kind, to unify all style writers and street-artists from Kolkata.