Hip hop returns to where it was born: in neighbourhoods, among people, in places where culture is first and foremost resistance.
On 27 February 2025, at 3 p.m., the ÀP – Antimafia Pop Academy in Rome will host “Hip-Hop: Beyond the Streets”, a meeting-workshop promoted by A Sud as part of the European project Soundroutes, which combines artistic training, musical creation and social justice.
The goal is clear: to bring urban culture back to its original meaning, as a political, collective and transformative space.
Not just music, therefore, but an educational and community process that uses rhythm, words and the body to build dialogue, dignity and participation.
The meeting will be moderated by Kento, a rapper and activist who has been involved for years in promoting hip hop as an educational tool in schools and juvenile detention centres. He will be joined by three voices from the national scene who combine art and research: Augusto “Aku” Pallocca, rapper and trainer; Giulia “Chimp” Giorgi, B-girl and film-maker; Jacopo “DeadPoet” Ferri, B-boy and researcher.
Together, they will lead a dynamic and participatory workshop, open to those who experience urban culture as a practice of freedom.
The initiative is part of the Soundroutes workshops, which for months have been touring Rome, Palermo, Catania and L’Aquila with courses dedicated to young hip hop artists and professionals. The workshops, which originated in social centres, schools and even a juvenile detention centre, offer technical training and spaces for free expression, but also tools for interpreting and changing reality.
Through writing, dance, beatmaking and collective discussion, Soundroutes promotes a specific idea of culture: accessible, political and community-based.
The project, funded by the European Union, also includes an international network of boot camps in Belgium, Spain, Greece and Italy, where participants can meet artists from all over Europe and co-create new musical productions. The best tracks will be compiled into a collective European album, a mosaic of languages, sounds and stories that tell the story of a generation of committed artists.
“Hip hop was born to give a voice to those who don’t have one,” say A Sud, ‘and today it is once again a tool for social, climate and gender justice. Bringing this energy into educational settings and self-managed spaces means restoring culture to its most radical function: that of changing reality.‘
ÀP – Antimafia Pop Academy, which has been working for years in the eastern suburbs of Rome to promote rights, participation and anti-Mafia culture, thus confirms its vocation as a ’pop academy”: a permanent laboratory of active citizenship, creativity and inclusion.
In this context, Hip-Hop: Oltre La Strada is more than an event: it is an invitation to rewrite the future of urban culture in Italy together.
The event will take place on 27 February 2025, at 3 p.m., at ÀP – Antimafia Pop Academy, Viale Palmiro Togliatti 76, Rome.
Admission is free, upon registration.
