Yes Academy showcases Bangladesh Hip-Hop at its best

Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, played host to a musical showcase conducted by the US Embassy YES (Youth Excellence on Stage) Academy, alongside American Voices (a US-based cultural diplomacy organisation). The event and performances exhibit the best of a foreign genre and culture blended with the exuberance of youth and local talents.

The show was conducted by the entertainer DJ Invisible who kept the audience engaged and breathed life into them whenever they seemed disengaged. Before all the local performers took to the stage, Richie 'Robot' Steighner was assigned with the task of engaging a crowd which had little idea of what was coming their way. He beatboxed his way through and the ovation he received from the crowd was the first glimpse of them gradually warming up to whatever treats the hip hop musical had to offer.

Thereafter entered the young, enthusiastic local hip hop artists of the country, some donning baggy tees and dark shades while a few others caught everyone's attention with the act of wrapping the Bangladesh flag around the microphones. One crucial factor about hip hop culture is resonance, so when 'Evergreen' took to the stage and performed their original number 'Shob i Osthir', it was evident that the audience enjoyed it. With other equally good performances in between, 'Clan Bangla' ended the show with a catchy number 'Bangla Banger' and the special attraction regarding this song was the heavy involvement of DJ Invisible.

The US embassy has been establishing YES academies around the world with the core objective of engaging with the local youth and providing them with high-quality training in some of America's greatest cultural genres. The US Embassy in Dhaka hosted an eight-day intensive in-person workshop on hip-hop, songwriting, dance, collaboration, beatboxing, rapping, music production, and music business.

The workshop which started on the 25th of August were led by Dangerflow band member and MC Angel 'Ocean Alvarado', award-winning hip hop DJ Carl Hollier aka 'DJ Invisible', international b-boy champion Alex 'BBoy El Nino' Diaz and two-time finalist of NBC's 'The Sing-Off', Richie 'Robot' Steighner. The four esteemed artists worked with 54 rising Bangladeshi hip hop stars throughout the week and as a celebration of 50 years of diplomatic ties between Bangladesh and The United States of America, concluded the programme with a musical showcase which featured seven original songs, two original dance routines and one music video.

The workshop pretty much enabled young Bangladeshi hip hop stars to take education on offer and churn out something of their own.

Take the breakdancing segment for example. Over 200 auditioned but ultimately only 40 odd were selected. A performance which stood out was the all-girl band 'Triple Threat' when they danced to popular tunes but did so with their original routines. They got the grandest ovation from the crowd and in a city where recently there have been preposterous claims about how women should express and conduct themselves, it was a welcome change because the reception from the crowd was admirable.

The intricacies of performing in coherence with 40 other dancers can be an exercise in magnanimity because it requires proper chemistry. When asked about it, 'B-Boy Star SWEET' revealed, "All of us are just like a family. Most of us go way back. We share similar tastes and views towards life. Hip hop for us and for me as well, is a lifestyle. It pretty much is our lives and that is why you could see that our chemistry tonight was absolutely top notch." He further added," This is a huge event for us and it's the first of its kind in Bangladesh. We can only grow bigger from here on."

When asked if this event was a stepping stone for the evolution of the hip hop scene in Bangladesh, DJ Invisible had a few pleasant revelations as he said," It is definitely a stepping stone. But Dhaka already has a hip hop scene! So this has just given the people a few more tools to take their careers to the next level. When I got here I asked them a couple of questions and the history knowledge of hip hop that these participants have is far beyond what we see in other countries."