Dame Dash Headlines Chattanooga Hip Hop Summit

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – 2023 marks 50 years since the accepted birth of hip-hop.

The Chattanooga Hip-Hop Summit is looking to connect aspiring musicians to those who have succeeded in the music industry.

One of hip-hop’s most influential executives, Dame Dash, is the keynote speaker at the summit.

Courtesy: Chattanooga Hip-Hop Summit

“I don’t want us to slip up into becoming unconscious slaves in the digital world. So, I want to make sure creatives know what they’re worth, and what they can do,” said Dome Dash. 

Dash is best known for being the co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records with superstar rapper Jay-Z and Kareem Burke.

Since that success, he has gone to establish multiple different companies including the entertainment company America Nu Network.

As Dame Dash speaks with aspiring artists across the Scenic City, he says the road will be bumpy, but worth it if you stick with it. 

Dash said, “My advice is dream. Understand what your dream is and make that what you do for living. Something that you would do for a living… I don’t want us to slip up into becoming unconscious slaves in the digital world. So, I want to make sure creatives know what they’re worth, and what they can do.”

One item of increasing concern for musicians small and large is the rise of artificial intelligence.

Four Senators, including Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn, produced a discussion draft on Thursday that would crack down on internet creators using AI voices and other likenesses of artists without their permission.

Dash says in his time in the entertainment business, AI is just another series of changes artists have to adapt to.

Dash said, “If you are not going to end up having a job because AI as a songwriter may be writing, you’re going to have to figure out what people can’t emulate with AI, and you have to know what AI could do so you’re not paying someone to do something, and then just having AI do it, so you don’t want to get robbed that way.”

In addition to his keynote at the Hip-Hop Summit, his wife Raquel Horn read a children’s book she wrote inspired by their son, Dusko, to children at the Creative Discovery Museum and the Challenger Center.

He says that the foray into education with his family is what is most important to him moving forward.

Dash said, “That’s what is most important, you know, a kid can’t read he’s going to jail, period. That’s how they build the jail cells.”

The Hip-Hop Summit continues on Saturday at the Edney Innovation Center.