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HIP HOP

Thunderous crowds cheer HBCU week in Wilmington, band throwdown

Dominick 'King Dom' Draper
Allhiphop.com

Hip-hop would have never survived if it wasn't for support from black-owned business and the community. Some of the main establishments that hip-hop culture was cultivated in were the historically black colleges and universities.

During slavery times African Americans were denied the opportunity for education, so historically black colleges became a safe haven for learning as well as a hub for cultivating and sharing black arts and culture.

The Battle of the Bands at Frawley Stadium was part of the second HBCU week in Wilmington.

To this day, one of the things that make the black college experience so unique is the style of the marching bands. For decades, HBCU bands have wowed crowds with their ability to rock the crowd and turn our favorite hip-hop and R&B songs into full-blown field performances.

This past weekend, some of the country's top HBCU bands descended upon Delaware for Wilmington’s annual HBCU week presented by Mayor Michael Purzycki’s office. The week full of events centered around education and exposing the HBCU experience to the community. It culminated in a sold-out Battle of the Bands at Frawley Stadium featuring Delaware State University, Bowie State University, Lincoln University and Hampton University, which ended up winning and taking home the $10,000 prize.

The event also featured a guest performance by Philadelphia hip-hop star PNB Rock. A capacity crowd of more than 6,500 people turned up and turned out Frawley Stadium.

Much of the planning and hard work came from two of the mayor’s trusted employees, Earl Cooper, community referral specialist, and Ashley Christopher, special assistant to the mayor, both of whom are HBCU graduates.

Earl Cooper, PNB Rock and Ashley Christopher at HBCU week's Battle of the Bands at Frawley Stadium.

Earl, a Morehouse graduate, and Ashley, a Howard alumnus, talked about what it was like planning this event, how it felt to see the community show so much support, and how the mayor’s office looks to support HBCU awareness in the city of Wilmington.

Q: Let’s start at the beginning. How did the Idea for HBCU week start?
Ashley: It actually started last year because Mayor Mike hired a lot of HBCU alumni throughout his administration. One day I just asked our chief of staff If we could curate an event that highlighted the historical significance of historically black colleges here in the city of Wilmington. I had no clue that it would turn into such a big event. So Earl and I got together and started it as a college fair that we expected about 150 people to show up to and we ended up with close to 700, some of which got accepted to college on the spot.
Earl: We also secured $400,000 donations from Chemours to give out 10 $40,000 scholarships throughout the next couple of years. We had one win last year and will pick three from the fair this year, three next year, and three the following year for a total of 10.

Q: What made you add the battle of the bands this year and how did you manage to book four college bands on a Saturday during football season?
Ashley: We actually reached out to some of the schools to let them know about the success of our college fairs. We established who was interested and we were able to work with some of them by looking at their football schedule because they don’t always travel to every away game. Earl and I just had to communicate with these schools to make it happen and it just worked out that these four were available.

Q: When the stadium hit capacity, what was that feeling like?
Earl: It was an amazing feeling to see the city come out. It reminded me that we can still come together as a community and have a good time with a purpose. When I and Ashley decided to do the battle we didn't want it to be for nothing. We wanted there to be some type of tangible give back for the bands and the community.

Q: How has Mayor Mike been instrumental in the success of these events and what was his reaction to the turnout?
Ashley: He was blown away and excited about the support from the community support. He always brags about this event as one of the best in his administration.
Earl: Mayor Mike has really given us a blank canvass to come to him with ideas and he supports them. He basically tells us if we think we can do it to go do it with excellence which is key because we can’t just slap things together.

Q: Are the plans to expand for next year?
Earl: We definitely want to bring the battle of the bands back plus I'm sure there will be more surprises in store. This is going to be a historic event moving forward and I want to also give shout out to Heather Lowery at LiveNation Urban for helping us book PNB Rock. I can't wait to see how next year turns out. Stay tuned!

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