Hip hop gets a bad rap.
No pun intended, but that is the gist of what Aurora resident Brandy Gilliam says about the art and culture he is a part of, which will be on display Sunday at the Hip Hop Festival sponsored by Culture Stock, Aurora’s arts and entertainment not-for-profit.
Gilliam, whose group, P.O.B.U.M.S. Society, organized the entertainment for Sunday’s festival, says mainstream America tends to focus on the gangsta connection to hip hop and not the rest of the culture.
“One of the things hip hop does is promote peace,” he said. “There are aspects of bringing races together, bringing people of all ages together, all ethnicities.”
To that end, Gilliam promises the festival will be for all ages, from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday at 225-275 Middle Ave. – just south of the Aurora Public Library property off of Gale Street.
It is the seventh annual Hip Hop Festival – known as “On the Wall” – and includes musical and dance performances, a breakdance battle and a car show, among other things.
The schedule of entertainment includes: 1:30 p.m., Krazy Threats; 1:45 p.m., YJ; 2 p.m., Ray Real; 2:30 p.m., Underground Royalty; 2:45 p.m., D Dukes; 3 p.m., Egocrazy; 3:15 p.m., Trilmob Pres. Los Bad Hombres; 3:30 p.m., Highest Low; and 4:30 p.m., Break Battle, the breakdancing contest.
The entertainment will be moderated by three local DJs – DJ Alfred from noon to 2 p.m., DJ Skidmark from 2 to 5 p.m., and DJ Sek Uno, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Gilliam’s P.O.B.U.M.S. Society performed at the event in 2017 and 2019, but focused this year, as a festival co-host, on organizing the talent.
“It’s important, because it’s a showcase for local hometown talent,” he said.
One of the featured items at the festival this year will be the recreation of a mural first done 30 years ago by a truly homegrown talent, artist Sam Cervantes.
In 1991, Cervantes was an East Aurora High School student who did a mural titled “Think” on the side wall of the former Super Mercado Juarez grocery store at Claim and Union streets.
The mural, often incorrectly referred to as “The Grim Reaper” but actually titled “Think,” was created as a
commentary against violence, particularly the gang violence that riddled the East Side at the time. But it was controversial, often misinterpreted as gang graffiti.
Cervantes has gone on to become a well-known local artist in his own right, with a hand in a number of murals and art pieces around town, including the Butterfly mural on an east facing wall of a building along Galena Boulevard, just east of Broadway.
Now, he and his crew, Them Bad Apples, which are also co-hosts of the festival, will recreate the mural Sunday.
“It was such a big deal back when it was painted,” said Nicole Mullins, board president of LIFT Aurora, which oversees Culture Stock. “It was an area bordering two gang territories at the time. A lot of people thought it was gang affiliated, because hip hop culture is stigmatized as only gang.”
In fact, unlike most gang-related graffiti at the time, it was never touched nor painted over by competing gangs.
“That’s because the art and message was so well-respected,” Mullins said.
The gang stigma is one of the reasons Culture Stock started the Hip Hop Festival, to show the hip hop culture as a vehicle for social activism, Mullins said.
And why Gilliam says the festival is a family event.
“Bring your kids,” he said.
