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HipHopistan, the "Land of Hip Hop", features performances, discussions and workshops with artists Abstract/Vision, MC Kabir, Chee Malabar, Yogi B & Natchatra and DJ Rekha over three days (April 17-19, 2008) in Chicago, Illinois. This event hopes to explore the linguistic and pan-ethnic expressions of various South Asian and South Asian-American Hip Hop artists.

Featured artists:

Abstract Vision (government name: Fahad Rizvi) is a Staten Island based Hip-Hop artist of Pakistani-American descent. Born in Karachi in the Zia al-Haq 1980s, baby Vision saw little of his native land as his family immigrated to the United States at the tender age of one. Like many Pakistani-American families in the 1980s, Abstract Vision's family escaped the clamping, intolerant and increasingly fundamentalist regime of Generalissimo Zia as economic and social migrants to the United States. Growing up in Staten Island a.k.a. Shaolin, as infamously coined by the legendary Wu-Tang Clan, Abstract Vision was blessed to grow up around Hip-Hop culture. Drawing upon influences such as Nas and the Wu, Abstract began dabbling in the MC element of the culture as early as age twelve.

Kabir is an independent emcee, singer and producer whose music brews a robust blend of hip hop, funk, soul, jazz, reggae and rock. He has shared stages with hip hop giants such as the Roots, Talib Kweli, Dilated Peoples, the Beatnuts, the Pharcyde and Wyclef Jean. Originally from London, this Boston-based recording artist performs regularly in New England, New York, the UK and beyond.

MCs Chee Malabar and Rainman of the Himalayan Project represent the evolving voice of the hip-hop generation. The duo's personal narrative takes listeners from Bombay to New York, with stops in China, Europe, San Francisco and South America. From the first generation to the second and beyond, their story is America's Next set over a hip-hop soundscape...

Rainman and Chee Malabar founded the Himalayan Project in 1994, while attending high school in San Francisco, CA. The group's name pays homage to their ancestral roots in India and China-the Himalayan Mountain Range straddles the borders of both countries.

DJ Rekha embarks on the next chapter of her career and announces the release of her highly anticipated debut album — DJ Rekha Presents Basement Bhangra — out Fall 2007 on Twisted/KOCH. On her debut, Basement Bhangra, DJ Rekha invites the listener to go with her into a world that merges the traditional Bhangra music of South Asia and the Hip-Hop beats of today, this disc takes you on a journey into the infectious expanding South Asian dance music genre known as Bhangra.