The Hip-Hop Congress, a non-profit organization, plans to release a new CD to raise money to reimburse the Thurston County Sheriff’s office for damages caused during a riot at a recent dead prez show. The album will feature music from a variety of artists, including dead prez, and will be available nationwide. As previously reported, the arrest of a concertgoer during a February 15 show at Evergreen State College in Washington escalated into an all out riot, resulting in overturned police cars and property damage. Several students and outside sources have questioned the chain of events as described by local media outlets. The Hip-Hop Congress launched its own independent investigation into the incident and have compiled a video called “It’s Bigger than Hip Hop: The Truth Behind the Evergreen Uprising, ”that they feel best outlines what exactly occurred at the show. According to The Olympian, Congress president Shamako Noble will be hosting an open forum on Friday (February 29) to discuss the incident and screen the video. “We offer the results of our inquiry not only as community media producers and advocates of Hip Hop culture, but also as supporters of the movement towards universal restorative justice and proactive restitution,” says Julie Chang Schulman, Northwest Regional Director for Hip Hop Congress. “We are concerned with what seems to be the omission of the Olympia Police Department’s role in this incident. If the objective is accountability and preserving the safety of this community, this should be just as important a part of the investigative process as finding those responsible for damages, especially given the preexisting tension between OPD and the Evergreen community.”

“It’s Bigger than Hip Hop: The Truth Behind the Evergreen Uprising”