It’s hip-hop, and ya don’t stop, as week of events honors genre

Hip-hop music, film and talk-story are coming together in Hono­lulu for the Future of Hip Hop Summit, which runs through Thursday.

Summit organizer Jermaine Fletcher, a freelance filmmaker and former Honolulu resident who lives in New York, said the summit, which began Monday, has its roots in a filmmaking proj­ect that originated in Hawaii.

Today, Fletcher and Curators of Hip Hop co-founder/fellow filmmaker Jimmie Thomas will talk story about "independence in art and business" at a workshop. Hip-hop workshops with local and national artists and creatives are offered 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at the Queen Liliu­oka­lani Center for Student Services at UH-Manoa.

The summit is made up of mostly free events, including the Hawaii premiere of "The Curators Volume 1: A Story of Independence," which follows five emcees spanning Hawaii to New York, including Hono­lulu rapper Prie.

FLETCHER, a Virginia native who attended college in Florida, came to Hawaii to create visual media for a local publishing company in 2009. Over the next 3 1/2 years, he became interested in wide-ranging aspects of the thriving Hawaii hip-hop scene.

Fletcher, Thomas and Asia Horne hatched the idea of a "Curators of Hip Hop" documentary film series following independent hip-hop artists as they sought a place in the culture.

Curators of Hip Hop is a "movement," Fletcher said, bringing artists and admirers together to collectively shape hip-hop’s future.

Prie caught Fletcher’s attention as a talented artist who also represents hip-hop’s increasingly international attraction, the filmmaker said.

The African-American, German, Samoan and Fijian rapper is a central part of the film "The Curators Volume 1."

"He was very consistent with his music; he was dedicated and I could relate to that," Fletcher said.

Prie headlines the summit’s closing concert Thursday, along with Matt Reeves, a New York hip-hop artist known for standing apart from lyricists who glorify violence or gang life.

Carolyn Malachi, a Grammy-nominated vocalist and songwriter, appeared at the opening concert Monday.

A series of related events has been promoted, including film screenings, concerts and discussions on the East and West coasts and in Hawaii.

The goal, Fletcher says, is to nurture "cultural ambassadors" for hip-hop worldwide, continuing the film series "to continue to find new artists, new sounds and to do it in a way that’s international. … For us the artists are the educators."