Looking Back at the Hip Hop Festive Day During the Open Day on September 17, 2022

As part of the launch of the Professional Bachelor in Production Management, launched in March 2023, IESA and its partner ON2H (Organisation Nationale du Hip Hop) organized this Saturday, September 17, on the occasion of the open day, a festive day devoted to discovering the world of Hip Hop.

With no fewer than 45 participants, well-known dancers, a DJ, a battle, and an exhibition by the artist Lassana Sarr, the day was an opportunity for everyone to talk and share around a common passion: Hip Hop.

This day was intended for everyone: future players, students, future students, professionals, amateurs and professionals of the Hip Hop movement.

An exhibition by Lassana Sarr

Participants had the chance to immerse themselves in the works of Lassana Sarr.

Strongly inspired by the urban figure of graffiti and Hip Hop, Lassana is known for his talent as a photorealist artist. A graduate in Graphic Design who has pursued continuous education in art history and practice throughout his career, he developed from a very young age an attraction to the futuristic and devastated images of Japanese manga and series.

Lassana has always oscillated between the city and nature, two distinct and contrasting worlds that never leave him, and he draws his technique mainly from the Impressionist and Naturalist painters while still referring to reality.

Taking the photograph as a reference point, his works come close to photographic reality while moving away from it and defying it. It is both a desire for contradiction and opposition between technological form and human force, reality and fiction. Lassana sees in the phenomenon of raw Graffiti a theme that is at once rich, wild and foundational, but also a way of leaving his mark.

You will find an interview with Lassana Sarr below.

Cypher Masterz, a battle, a winner

Throughout the day, spectators watched a spectacular battle featuring 6 female and 6 male renowned Hip Hop dancers. The principle of the Cypher Masterz is to bring together, for an evening or an afternoon, exceptional dancers around a single musical theme: house music, with a house DJ.

In the circle, to the rhythm of the energy of today’s dances, all worlds and all styles meet for a moment of celebration and exchange. They are invited to face off in the circle.

Maaxlove, one of the 6 dancers, was proclaimed King. He won the crown and a €800 check from IESA and ON2H.

Why this Hip Hop bachelor?

The idea of creating a Pro Bachelor dedicated to the Hip Hop market stems from widespread ignorance of this culture and a lack of academic structure. As Henry Hang, an IESA teacher and head of this program, explains, "it is a culture that has existed for more than 50 years. However, it is still little known to the public, especially the new generation that is hungry for knowledge. It is untouched ground. Many want to make a living from their passion, they grew up with it and know it. And there is a labor shortage, all the more so since this culture offers employment solutions for the future by providing access to a specific qualification."

A well-known figure in the Hip Hop world, an art painter and, for about twelve years, a teacher of urban art history in all its forms - dance, graffiti, artistic movements - at IESA, Henry Hang initiated this new program.

IESA welcomed this proposal favorably given the challenge of democratizing and structuring urban art within the cultural and creative industries, as it wishes to fill the current absence of an institutional program dedicated to careers around hip-hop and urban cultures.

What does this bachelor involve?

The professional bachelor is open to students holding a bac+2 (or an equivalent program corresponding to 120 ECTS) as well as to learners holding a baccalaureate who can show at least three years of experience in the Hip Hop sector. The admission file, built around the program’s skill blocks, positions the candidate in order to validate their admission request.

Program objectives

Skill acquisition objectives:

The Hip Hop Production Manager program is built to provide the skills needed to earn the level 6 certification, registered with the RNCP, Cultural Project Production Manager. These skills are grouped into five blocks:

  • Ensure the promotion and communication of the project
  • Manage the project’s budget and legal and regulatory administration
  • Define and set up the cultural project
  • Produce and implement mediation actions and tools
  • Organize and carry out the production and distribution of the project

Educational objectives:

To acquire these skills, the program relies on three educational objectives:

1. Student professionalization through:

  • carrying out real group projects that apply, in the field, the skills and knowledge acquired during classes;
  • a professionalization path allowing you to discover the sector, acquire complementary skills in a professional setting (internships and/or work-study contracts) and build a professional network
  • teaching delivered by a faculty made up of 90% working professionals keen to pass on knowledge in the contexts where it is used professionally.

2. Student specialization through expertise in all the disciplines of Hip Hop and the productions tied to it:

  • hip hop dances (newstyle, popping, locking, breakdance…),
  • graffiti and street art,
  • music production (rap, R’N’B, beatmaking…) as well as performing arts,
  • organizing battles, exhibitions and festivals…

3. Opening to the international sphere through:

  • general culture and specialty courses taught by the four international departments of the Applied Research Center in Contemporary Cultures.