Ozi Batla
Hip Hop Comes Together For Flood Relief
Hello everyone. I feel I have just tapped the surface on my research. I am always running into evidence of the elements of hip-hop throughout Sydney, as illustrated by this pathway filled with stunning graffiti murals. I just discovered. This was my first time experiencing a HOT January. Don’t get me wrong; I am not complaining in the least! It is just taking a minute to adjust to humid weather that is not attached with snow and sleet, so soon after New Years. After about 5 days of hot weather, we usually get a break with summer rains, here in Sydney. As you have probably seen in the news, Australia was hit with a bit of irregular weather and a few natural catastrophes in a relatively short amount of time. The country received a record amount of rain in 2010. Rains have heavily hit Queensland, one of the seven states in Australia, this year. Three quarters of the state have been declared a disaster area. The hip-hop community here in Sydney has been coming up with ways to help. In addition to clothing drives and individual donations, a group of artists from Sydney and Melbourne quickly organized the Blood’s Thicker Than Water concert: Sydney Hip Hop QLD Floods Relief Effort. The concert was slated to start at 7PM. I arrived at 6:45PM and the venue was already packed with a line over a mile long patiently waiting to get in (I Google-mapped the distance between the first and last person in line… I can’t help myself).
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