Get your tickets to the new hip hop show, 47 & Friends, happening at The Canopy Club on March 15th. This concert is the brain-child of Champaign-born community leader Jarrel Young and co-produced by The Champaign Cypher Series (heralded by Robert K.) Building on the work that the Cypher Series has done to keep hip hop shows alive in Champaign-Urbana, this show promises to usher in a renewed energy and intentionally forge connections between different hip hop generations. And it’s coming right on time with the seasonal shift towards spring.
During my interview with Young ahead of the show, he mentioned intentions of reviving Champaign’s “Golden Era” for local music, which he identified as roughly 2011 to 2017. Young said about this time, “It was all types of hip hop shows going on, but then some of these venues started gatekeeping, and started shutting down the access to these venues for us to have hip hop shows.”
The loss of available venues cast a pall on the hip hop scene, one that has only just begun clearing in the post-COVID era. Artists have lamented the loss of Mike N Molly’s and Highdive, while lauding the Canopy Club and the Independent Media Center as venues which have generally kept the door open for hip hoppers. Young seeks to use this event as a springboard that will ignite a sense of hope and unity among hip hoppers in order to support their growth and to inspire the community to organize around music. Music is certainly a universal connector.
Young stated about 47 & Friends, “I’m just sharing the space. I’m at the point where I’m giving back. I don’t even care however I need to give back, Imma just give back, bro. I’ve sold out the Canopy before, I’ve done plenty of shows… I’ve opened up for artists at the Canopy…. Okay, now it’s time to give that back. And that’s what 47 & Friends is.”
He envisions this upcoming show as the first installment in a year-long series of hip hop showcases that will allow him to share his platform and provide opportunities for artists, much like Kendrick Lamar with his Pop-Out Concert during the “Not Like Us” moment in mainstream hip hop. He wants to provide space for CU hip hoppers to network, collaborate, and organize in community as one band with one voice. These hip hop shows will feature a variety of acts. Young hopes to produce spaces that invite new energy to co-mingle and mix in Canopy’s Red Room.
“We’re going to jump into different genres… we’re going to have spoken word, dancers, DJ sets…. I mean, at some point I want to get into having a rap battle,” said Young.
Young has had his lion’s share of success as a born-and-raised CU hip hop artist now raising his own family here. Much of his music journey has been connected to the work he has consistently done in schools with hip hop programming: “I’ve ran hip hop programs over at Kenwood Elementary. I ran hip hop programs over at Booker T. Washington. I used to work with Dr. Adam Kruse over at the Illinois School of Music ISYM Hip Hop Camp — I did that for like three, four years.”
Young has worked with children and adults comprising a wide range of ages, interests, and backgrounds. As a licensed social worker, he stays busy making sure the community’s mental health needs are tended to. For Young, the discovery of counseling and the realm of mental health have been transformative in his life, specifically for his music.
Young comes from a supportive and loving family, and as is the case in many Black families of his parents’ generation, any potential malady of the mind was handled with religious, not medical attention. He has expressed his deep belief in the spiritual dimensions of hip hop and music making. His experiences have shown him that hip hop can be a platform for self-discovery for young children in this community and a positive alternative to a life limited by street crimes. Young is a family man with principles that can help the community. His focus on education and mental health as essential pillars of his hip hop movement makes him just the right artist to help lead and inspire others.
Young mentioned following the model of Nipsey Hussle: “Neighborhood Nip…. Man, Nipsey Hussle showed me, ‘man, you can wear multiple hats and still be true to yourself.”
Young’s newest hat involves running for public office, specifically Champaign Unit 4 School Board in the upcoming term. He hopes, with the help of voters, to be a voice of mutual understanding between the Baby Boomer generation and the school-aged population. As a hip hopper with rising influence and positive visions for the future, I’d say Young would be a great decision-maker to guide the direction of our schools.
He said of his own upbringing, “I was just a YN just fifteen years ago, but I also came up in the 90s and the early 2000s where we still respected our elders and we had a solid grip on life. And this [was] pre-technology takeover. Social skills is on point. We have to go to other people’s houses, knock on the door: ‘Ay, can Johnny come outside and play?’”
