For people concerned with the lack of positive art in our communities, Hip Hop For Change Inc. is the nonprofit that educates and empowers all people with a platform to express themselves through the arts while teaching society about the power of Hip Hop Culture.

Right now, we need you more than ever

Emergency Arts-Education Fund

Keep arts education alive during the shelter-in-place order.

Unfortunately, due to policies mandating social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19, county-wide school closures across the Bay Area have paused our pending contracts for the remaining school year. These programs include after-school classes, assemblies, workshops, and enrichment courses, all geared toward Hip Hop education, artistic youth self-expression, and culturally responsive pedagogy. Thus, the mentor-student relationship between our educators and the youth we serve has been adversely impacted. In addition, over a dozen HH4C artists-educators have been especially impacted due to the performative nature of their trade and mentorship. Many of our educators rely on teaching contracts and artist residencies for their livelihood. Most Hip Hop artists in the Bay Area aren’t eligible for unemployment while still grappling with the severe, if not complete loss of income.

Nevertheless, Hip Hop For Change is still working hard amid this crisis, to support local artists as well as our youth. We are beginning a new initiative to provide artists work during the crisis producing online content for youth. Your donations will go directly to paying teaching artists and a local videographer to deliver and edit video content and in creating an online curriculum and portal for community access.

Click here to donate and please share this campaign with your networks to ensure we meet our goal and thank you for your continued support.

Our latest work

Oakland to El Salvador: Hip Hop For Change Goes International

Thanks to the US Embassy in El Salvador, Hip Hop For Change now an international Hip Hop education program! We had a blast touching the lives of Hip Hop lovers young and old, showing them first hand how the healing power of Hip Hop can change their lives, their communities, and the world! Definitely check out our education program before you leave by clicking here.

ONline Education is almost here!

HH4C is proud to announce the launch of our ONLINE education program THE MC. A fully functional internet-based Hip Hop Education course that will keep our youth education going during the shelter-in-place order, and beyond.

Click here to check it out!

the three pillars of our work

grassroots JOb Program

We've employed hundreds of people from all walks of life with a living wage to educate the public around issues of race, social justice, and the cooptation of Hip Hop. We have nearly 100 thousand conversations in affluent communities every year bridge social gaps and bring disparate communities together.

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Hip Hop Education

We've taught over 20 thousand youth the history of Hip Hop evolution, music, and culture in California so far. Our experiential workshops give kids K-12 the tools for their own positive, healthy self-expression and a better understanding of a culture rooted in Peace, Love, Unity, and Having Fun.

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Social Justice Events

We throw social justice-themed events that give a platform to issues like environmental equity, women's empowerment, and other important issues affecting marginalized communities. We provide pay for positive and progressive artists that have been left behind by corporate-controlled media, and we keep narratives of hope and struggle accessible for all people.

The Foundation

The mainstream music industry sells sexism, drug abuse, homophobia, materialism, and gang violence as if these problems represent the cornerstones of hip hop culture.

The corporate media presents Hip Hop music and culture as a grotesque array of negative stereotypes, embracing criminality, sexism, homophobia, materialism, and domination culture. These corporate representations are part of a historical legacy of oppression of black and brown people; propaganda that demonizes and objectifies people of color is the ideological basis for the legitimization of oppression and prejudice.

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