Urban Live is an event on campus that is hosted by MVL Radio. Khadijah Davis, who is known as the Hip-Hop Director, had the wonderful vision and did everything in her power to make it come alive. Davis explains, “Manhattanville and MVL did not have showcase for Hip-Hop and R&B talents or events in general that represented the culture of Hip-Hop and R&B.” Davis then came up with the idea of hosting showcases.
The very first Hip-Hop showcase was held on February 25th, 2015. Davis contacted Hip-Hop artist such as Kins, Bobby Capri, RC & the FRATT Corp Posse, Haze the Punter, International EA, and Slim Dymondz. Davis also incorporated Manhattanville student such as Keana Outlaw, Steven Willis, Andre Blue and Kizzie. After realizing that this event was a huge success, Davis teamed up with Manhattanville students to begin planning the next showcase which would take place on April 17th, 2015. The committee currently is Gianni Morgrovejo, Matt Bailey, Grant Pilson, Andre Blue, Victoria Oluwale, Keana Outlaw, Lanisha Porter and anybody else apart of MVL Radio that wants to join.
At the moment they were calling this event, “Hip-Hop night in the Pub”, until one night, Manhattanville Student, Keana Outlaw come up with “Urban Live”. That’s what stuck. According to Davis, “Urban Live is the branding of MVL Radio’s Hip-Hop division. Our first Urban Live event was on April 17th, 2015 and we had performances by R&B singer Justin Love and P.Dice from the Remy Boyz, Our very own legendary Andre Blue, InternationalEA, Cha$e Dollaz, Bobby Capri, Slim Dymondz, Bobby Gore, Steely – One, and spoken word by Manhattnville word Jade, Keana Outlaw, Steven Willis, and Andre Blue and Kizzie, participated in the Hip-Hop cypher”.
The process for finding these are fairly easy due to technology these days. If someone from the Urban Live team came across an artist on SoundCloud, YouTube, Instagram or etc, they would bring their inquiry to Davis so she could begin the process of booking that artist for the next show. The main goal for each Urban Live show is to have at least three to four urban artist. Not only does the committee look off campus, they acknowledge talented minorities on campus through Black Student Union, SOCA, Spoken Word artist, and Royalty Steppers. Urban Live is also here to help the Manhattanville Community to understand the culture of Hip-Hop and R&B through seeing music artist perform live and through various radio interviews.
From the first show back in 2014 to the recent show that was on January 29th, 2016, the audience has grown tremendously. Davis states, “The first two hip-hop events on campus I planned back in spring semester of 2014, and the one event in the fall semester of 2014 had literally 10 people in the audience. Now to actually have an amazing dedicated team of talented MVL radio students help plan the Urban Live events. Local artist off campus reaching out asking to perform, and the pub filled with Manhattanville students and off campus guest, Literally blows my mind!”
10 years from now, Davis would love to see Urban Live growing beyond Manhattanville College Campus. Davis wants it to be the next 106 & Park/ Apollo Live. Davis also believes that everyone on the Urban Live team has a vision that they will strive to accomplish such as an Urban Live Concert featuring big artists, such as Drake, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar.
Davis is sure that even after she graduate she will always help and support the hip-hop music directors and the Urban Live vision.