David Michael Miller
If you’ve heard anything about Madison’s hip-hop scene, you know there are problems. Just what those problems are depends on your proximity to them.
For those on the outside, local rap shows seem to be magnets for trouble. Whenever they make the news, it’s bad news about a violent incident or a disturbance involving police.
But rap artists and fans see a very different issue. They say they’re largely shut out of music venues across the city that won’t book local emcees and, in some cases, won’t even play their music on jukeboxes.
A new city committee named the Equity in Music Task Force is aiming to tackle both of these separate but related issues. And those involved aren’t pulling punches about what they see is the real problem.
“This is all rooted in racism,” says Karen Reece, president of the Urban Community Arts Network, a nonprofit organization that has promoted the local hip-hop scene through events and education initiatives for more than seven years. “We’ve seen this happen over several decades in Madison where, whenever there’s a business that’s black-owned or we see large gatherings of people of color, we tend to see an increased response, whether that’s an increased police presence or [negative] news coverage.”
Deputy Mayor Gloria Reyes agrees. “I suspect that, knowing Madison, that is the root cause here, that it is race,” she says, adding that acknowledging that is difficult but necessary. “We have to [look into] how race is playing a role, just call it out and then we can talk about it — that’s the only way we can move forward.”
The task force will begin by focusing on the local rap scene, but Reece says the ultimate goal is “greater representation of artists of color on nightclub performance stages, traditional Madison festivals or in any space where we see other genres of music represented. We don’t have a common place for R&B, jazz, blues and genres of music that traditionally draw crowds of non-white people.”
That local rap artists and fans don’t have many opportunities to express and enjoy their preferred art form — which was recently declared as the most popular genre in America — is a major problem that goes deeper than most realize.
“I’ve known at least a handful of young people in the past year who have left this community or graduated and didn’t take jobs here [because] they felt like there wasn’t a cultural scene for them,” says rap fan and city alder Maurice Cheeks. “[Whether it’s] Minneapolis or Denver, my friends have found a much more developed hip-hop music and culture scene in every other city they’ve gone to. Feeling welcomed matters for retaining talent.”
On Aug. 1, the city council approved nominations for the music equity task force that includes UCAN’s Reece, local emcee Rob “Rob Dz” Franklin, Ald. Arvina Martin, college student and emcee Jalen “Protege the Pro” McCullough, promoter Brennan Haelig, Frequency owner Darwin Sampson and Madison Arts Commission member Yorel Lashley. The task force will also include representatives from the city’s Public Safety Review Committee, the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Alcohol License and Review Committee.
Now that the task force is beginning to take shape, many are wondering just what a city committee can do to address a multifaceted problem that involves art, perception, stereotypes and private business owners who choose which acts they want to book.
“[We’re looking] at surveys, listening sessions and maybe focus groups so we can really zone in on what is the community voice, what are the perceptions,” says Reece, whose UCAN group recently partnered with UW-Madison researchers to use police report data to prove that local rap shows are not any more violent or problematic than other genres of music. “[We’re also going to be] looking at other cities to see what other strategies have worked there, because this is not a problem that is unique to Madison, unfortunately.”
Reece acknowledges that there are a handful of venues willing to book local rap shows in town but says the problems persist. “It’s not about the number of venues that are willing to occasionally book a hip-hop show but how often are the shows getting booked. Are they booking hip-hop shows at the same rate or the same frequency as other genres?”
She adds: “I’m not naive enough to think that this [task force] is the magic bullet that’s going to solve all of our problems … but I think it is a really good next step in the fight for equity in our scene.”
Eventually, Reece hopes to see a space designated exclusively to fans of urban music. “Could we have a venue in Madison that specifically focuses on hip-hop and R&B, and what would it take to get there?” she asks. “I think it’s something that people are definitely interested in.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Jalen McCullough's stage name. He is known as "Protege the Pro," not "Pro the Protege."
