FOREWORD

FOREWORD

The first issue of Balkan Hip Hop Studies (BHHS) international scientific journal was published as a product of many years of work and com­mit­ment to the advocacy of hip hop and urban culture of the magazine's founders. Given that hip hop as a culture is taught at a number of higher edu­cation institutions for a long time, and there are also a number of publications dedicated to it, we felt the need to publish a scientific journal that would refer to hip hop and urban culture in the Balkans. In the magazine, contributions are to be published that may refer to music, cultural studies, linguistics, li­te­ra­ture, art, dance, history, sociolinguistics, sociology, philosophy, per­for­ma­tive arts, pedagogy, etc. The inclusion of all these academic fields is to present hip hop, slam poetry, African American, and urban culture from different as­pects and points of view.

The first issue comes out in the year when the world celebrates the fiftieth birthday of hip hop. And that is but a right occasion for the birth of such a magazine.

As the first such Macedonian and Balkan edition, I sincerely hope that we are to succeed in our intentions to unite a wider circle of Balkan in­tellectuals with a single mission to promote urban values. For this purpose, an international editorial board formed in which lecturers Gregor Pompe, Moj­ca Krevel, Vencislav Dimov, Srebrenka Mačković, Jelena Arsenijević Mit­rić, Tatjana Vukelić, and Zvonko Taneski from the universities of Ljub­ljana, Sofia, Sarajevo, Kragujevac, Rijeka and Bratislava respectively took part, as well as lecturers Antoanela Petkovska and Risto Solunchev from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. We express our great gratitude to all of them.

The editorial board, on the other hand, responsible for the content and lay­out of the magazine, responded enthusiastically to all the challenges we fa­ced during the very process of registration, creation, and publication of the is­sue. I thank all of them: Julijana Papazova, musicologist, co-author of Ис­то­рија на македонската популарна музика (The History of Ma­ce­do­nian Popular Music); Elena Prendjova, poet, participant, and co-organizer of the Macedonian National Poetry Slam Finals, and Aleksandar Koviloski, hip hop activist, member of the groups Клан Исток (Klan Istok) and Браќа по крв (Brakja po krv), one of the founders of Hip Hop Macedonia organization. I also express my gratitude to all those involved in the creation of BHHS in any possible way.

Considering that a big dream of mine is fulfilled, the next thing I can wish is for the magazine to expand the composition of the international edi­to­rial board, to include as many authors as possible, and, finally, to organize annual Balkan hip hop meetings where authors could present their views re­gar­ding hip hop.

Finally, to the great pleasure of the Editorial Board, we present you Bal­kan Hip Hop Studies.

Lecturer Slavcho Koviloski, PhD

Editor-in-chief of Balkan Hip Hop Studies (BHHS)