Tonight, DC philanthropists and socialites John Burns, Kheira Benkreira, Abiye Abebe, Joseph Orji, WJLA

HHP Performing at BloomBar's Benefit

anchor Maureen Bunyan and others host an exclusive event in honor of South African hip-hop artist Hip Hop Pantsula a.k.a Jabba at Policy.

Proceeds from tonight’s event will go to BloomBars “Artist-in-Bloom Visiting Residency Initiative”, a cultural exchange program that brings artists of different cultures and levels of success together to network, and supports the growth of up and coming artist.

The 29 year old hip-hop icon sometimes called the “Jay-Z of Africa” infuses South African cultural influences in his music by mixing Setswana, isiZulu and Sesotho languages in his lyrics. His critically acclaimed fourth album Acceptance Speech featured Amerie in the video for his single “Music and Lights”. On his upcoming project HHP is collaborating with rap icon Nas, and Wyclef Jean.

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Nas & Damian Marley

Tomorrow, (Saturday, Dec. 12th) Nas and Damian Marley (Bob Marley’s youngest son) are stopping through the District to present “Distant Relatives”; a speaker series for an upcoming documentary tracing the roots of reggae and hip hop back to African music. This should be a hot event for all you hip hop and music heads. The two artist along with an all star panel will be “debating and celebrating” hip hop & reggae’s cultural influence on the globe.

The panelist are DJ Kool Herc and DJ Red Alert to Jamaican dancehall legend, Daddy U-Roy, King Jammy, and moderator Sway Calloway of MTV. It all goes down at National Geographic Live! in DC (1145 17th St NW).

Unfortunately the event is now sold out; but you can watch it streamed lived here: Natgeomusic.net starting at 7PM EST. But for those of you who hope to catch a glimpse of the music legends in person, they’ll also hold a live open-mic and after-party at Zanzibar (700 Water Street SW) featuring all the panelist.

Doors open for the after-party at 9PM Click here for ore information on the after-party.

See you there!

-AE