UBC AMS club Rappers Without Borders is the club for students who are fuelled by a love of hip-hop, passionate about spitting rhymes and driven by a desire to make a difference.
The club was formed in September 2013 by two friends: Dylan Perdue, currently a fifth year integrated Engineering student and Barnabas Caro, now a political science graduate. It aims to bring together UBC's hip-hop community and provides a platform for students and local performers to showcase their skills and have fun sharing the art they love.
"There's never really been a centre for rap or hip-hop here on campus. There's no UBC rap club," said Perdue, who is the current president and teaching coordinator of the club. As teaching coordinator, Perdue is responsible for running the hip-hop workshops that take place on Wednesdays in the SUB.
"We have freestyle tutorials and go over basic elements of rhythm, rhyme schemes and vocalization and so on. Anyone can drop in for the workshops," he said.
On Freestyle Fridays, members reconvene for a fun night of freestyling and recording tracks, which are then posted onto SoundCloud.
According to Perdue, Rappers Without Borders' mission is to raise funds for the Doctors Without Borders organization, which was also the inspiration behind the club name.
"We wanted to take the focus away from the personal, material gain that is a common trend within rap," said Perdue. "We wanted to put the spotlight on the art itself. The reason that I'm so into it is because I think it's a really cool art -- the way that language is used and manipulated to evoke certain feelings and allow you to express certain things."
On April 2, the club collaborated with the UBC EDM (Electronic Dance Music club) to host a hiphop night at the Pit with entry by donation, where they raised approximately $250. The event repertoire included seven short rap sets and one slam poetry set, and had an overall great turnout.
Perdue said that the club will be planning more events in the near future in order to raise more money for a strong end of the year donation to the organization. He also said that the club's website has recently been finished and anyone can go to rapperswithoutborders.org for more information about the club, or just to listen to some of the cool freestyle tracks.
"The site's going to be a hub for anything hip-hop related happening in Vancouver, with a focus on UBC," said Perdue. "Music made by student artists, events happening in Vancouver and anything interesting related to the world of hiphop will be posted."