Hip-Hop Parties Are Having a Moment at Cedar Rain

For the last three months, the 5th element project, a hip-hop nonprofit, has been throwing “Hip Hop + R&B nights” with $5 18+ entry at local bar, Cedar Rain. These parties attract local b-boys and b-girls, college students, and those in the greater Walla Walla community interested in “the Culture.” All of the proceeds from these parties are going toward 5th Element's annual June 21 breakdancing battle, The Get Down. Their last party before the battle opens is happening tonight at 10pm.

Breakdancing, breaking, b-boying, b-girling: these are all names for one of the five main elements of hip-hop. Breaking started in the South Bronx in the 70s, and it continues to stand out as Black art faces great adversity. 

In 1980, the New York Times published a three part investigation into the “Suspicious Fires” that plagued New York city in the seventies, especially in the South Bronx.

“There were 43,072 structural fires in New York last year, according to the Fire Department. About 8,200 of these were judged by fire marshals as ‘suspicious,’ most in the South Bronx, the East New York section of Brooklyn and the communities nearby - neighborhoods that are being transformed by fires into homeless, almost noiseless, scenes of desolation.” 

Breaking ignited at parties in an early 1970s South Bronx, which at the time was so politically abandoned that it was often compared to Dresden post World War II. Breaking has since expanded from the South Bronx across the globe. Beyond The Get Down in Walla Walla, there’s also a multi-element hip hop event happening May 17 in Richland called The B-Boy Beatdown, which, as in line with hip-hop’s cultural values, is open to everyone.  

5th Element itself is a program of a greater organization called the Walla Walla Music Organization. The WWMO was started by Rodney Outlaw, a music producer and professor at both Whitman College and Walla Walla Community College. Outlaw started the 5th element project with Louie Miranda and Peter de Grasse. Miranda or ‘Bboy Louie’ is in a Tri-Cities breaking crew called Soul Felons. He also teaches breaking classes at Whitman and at the YMCA. de Grasse or “Studios P” is a Senior Lecturer of Dance at Whitman College and is a popper in the 404 crew. 

Outlaw emphasizes that hip-hop is not only about creating art. It’s also about creating collective community action, support, and the sharing of resources. He told Defunct about one upcoming project in Walla Walla, where he will be offering free community lessons in music production. He said he is currently pooling the resources to offer free or heavily discounted, healthy meals, to go along with the lessons.

“That’s the culture,” Outlaw said. “For every hip hop culture action, there’s a reaction happening in the community in real time.”

de Grasse says the decision to throw parties as fundraisers for The Get Down pays homage to Breaking’s origins. 

“We are tracing that root in the sense that the culture turns on a social axis,”  de Grasse said. “That’s easy to forget in this world where hip-hop has become a cultural commodity, where people are in contact with it as consumers of a track or a film, or social media, which is electronically mediated.” 

The three say that their Hip Hop and R&B nights at Cedar Rain have allowed them to start transitioning from grant funding to community funding– much of which is coming from local college students. Outlaw says the parties have become a place for students across Walla Walla’s different colleges to have a “collaborative meeting.” Miranda says one of the best things about 5th element’s parties has been witnessing youth engagement with hip hop culture. 

Along with breaking, the other elements of hip hop are DJing, MCing, and Graffiti or “Graf writing.”

“The fifth element is always Knowledge,” Miranda said.

Each element threads itself across the world, and each hinges on a dedication to art, community organizing, collective support, and the spread of knowledge. The work that Outlaw, de Grasse, and Miranda have been doing through 5th element offers proof that this dedication continues to thrive, from the South Bronx to Walla Walla.