Last August, thanks to the hard work of Ald. Khalif Rainey, Milwaukee Hip-Hop Week made its debut with a slate of events that included one with the legendary DJ Kool Herc.
On Tuesday, the full Common Council approved the 2019 Hip-Hop Week MKE, which will run Aug. 19-25 at a variety of venues in the city.
"I again will focus on Hip-Hop Week MKE serving as a community-building event for Milwaukee residents to enjoy and embrace," said Rainey in a statement on Thursday.
"Last year we truly had a tremendous level of support from organizations, sponsors, venues, and especially the community. I am looking forward to bringing in even more partners and enlarging the audience further when we kick it with the 2019 version of Hip-Hop Week MKE this August."
There's no schedule of events or list of venues yet, but last year's series of activities, events, displays, concerts and more took place at venues like The Miller High Life Theatre, St. Joseph Hospital, The Wisconsin Black Historical Society, Gee’s Clippers, The Rave/Eagles Club, The Riverside and The Oriental Theatre, and included discussions about financial literacy, health issues, jobs and more.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
