When you think of hip-hop, you probably don’t think of Howard County. JayMoney Hackett is trying to change that.
On Saturday, Hackett and his company, Wisdom Court Entertainment, will be throwing their ninth annual Wisdom Court Summer Jam at Howard County Fairgrounds, a venue that hasn’t always featured hip-hop acts.
“It’s somewhere you don’t really see any hip-hop-type of festivals. It’s actually the complete opposite,” Hackett said of the locale, which has hosted his event three times before. “It’s more country and pop, and so we wanted to test the boundaries about … bringing what we like to do out there and it succeeded.”
Hackett’s goal is to advocate for the community, give local musicians a platform and provide live hip-hop to people in a county that has not typically catered to that genre, especially in the more western areas, Hackett said.
West Friendship native Hackett started his music career in 2004, rapping and selling CDs out of a car trunk with his mentor, Wisdom Court co-founder and Sykesville native Billy Dee Williams, better known as Billy Lyve. They’ve thrown events increasing in size and scale ever since.
That passion for music, combined with Hackett’s 10 years of experience teaching special education in Howard’s public school system, has given him an opportunity to grow his connection to youth and community engagement — all important aspects in his hopes of changing the perception of the county.
Howard has been historically known for being mostly white and rural. But in recent years, diversity has increased in the county.
According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates, about 53.2% of Howard County residents are white, 21.7% are Black, 20.5% are Asian and 8.9% are Hispanic or Latino.
That demographic shift can potentially lead to cultural gaps — something Hackett is attempting to fill.
“I continually just try to keep on bringing events to Howard County, like hip-hop events, so they know there’s still culture out there,” he said.
This year’s event will host over 20 performers from throughout Maryland, as well as several food trucks and vendors.
Jae Simone, who will be taking the Summer Jam stage for the second time, said this event is about “bringing talent together,” with most performers having an ability to cater to the audience in diverse ways. Headliner Donnie Breeze, performing for the third time at the event, noted the diversity of the audience itself.
There are “all different age groups and stuff out there, so it’s cool for parents and families to bring their kids, their aunts and uncles and stuff like that,” he said.
With these concerts, Hackett aims to cultivate a self-sustaining scene for proud artists from Howard County who typically would have to travel to Baltimore venues. They shouldn’t feel pressured to represent major cities they’re not actually from just because they’re “easy to claim,” he said.
“Just be yourself, right where you are and be true to yourself, and you can do anything you want to do.”
Having this concert specifically centered around hip-hop is important for the genre, too, Lyve said. “I think it shows that there can be unity on hip-hop music — it’s a lot of negative press sometimes.”
“When you’re able to put together events and everybody’s in there to have fun and get along and blend well together, I think it does wonders for any community.”
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