PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) \u2014 Portland\u2019s annual PDX Hip Hop Week is returning for its 11th year, with a slate of events designed to celebrate the city\u2019s hip-hop community and spotlight local artists.<\/p>\n
DJ OG ONE, the official DJ for the Portland Trail Blazers and a co-founder of the event, said the week began in response to what he described as a \u201csystematic shutdown of clubs and venues that primarily had hip hop music and black and brown people\u201d in 2013.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started the hip hop week because there were issues going on at that time actually back in 2013 there seemed to be a systematic shutdown of clubs and venues that primarily had hip hop music and black and brown people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
OG ONE said the week is held annually from Aug. 20 through Aug. 26, timed to honor late co-founder veteran Portland DJ \u201cStar Chile.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the event has grown along with the community, and he emphasized an open approach to participation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve set this up in such a way where there is no gatekeeper there’s no gatekeeper everyone can be involved everyone,\u201d he said. \u201cCommercializing all that that’s cool and everything but getting your money and and getting famous or whatever that that’s cool but at the foundation at the root it’s about us being together.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also called Portland\u2019s hip-hop scene a \u201chidden treasure,\u201d saying the week has helped elevate local talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always felt like Portland as a hip-hop community was a hidden treasure like just the jewels,\u201d OG ONE said. \u201cI’m just glad that Hip-hop week has been a platform to be help curate and kind of push them out in the forefront.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event officially kicks off with a block party in front of City Hall, exactly a week from today, on the 20th. A full list of events is available at pdxhiphopweek.com, and updates are posted on PDX Hip Hop Week\u2019s social media pages.<\/p>\n
Watch the full interview below: <\/p>\n
Portland\u2019s annual PDX Hip Hop Week is returning for its 11th year, with a slate of events designed to celebrate the city\u2019s hip-hop community and spotlight local artists.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) \u2014 Portland\u2019s annual PDX Hip Hop Week is returning for its 11th year, with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-817302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}