If you’re a regular round these parts then y’all know I’m a huge lover of technology and a big STEM advocate. 2012 has been a good year for hip hop being integrated into major technology events: Will.I.Am and LL Cool J both presented at CES back in January (the world’s largest consumer electronics and technology event), DJ Fusion gave a TED talk at TEDxOrlando in October and Young Guru gave one earlier this month at TEDYouth. Young Guru is also now a major part of Georgia Tech’s EarSketch project, a program that teaches high school kids how to write code in order to remix music. I played around with the EarSketch software at A3C. It’s a very cool, easy to learn and use open source code software.

During Young Guru’s TEDYouth talk, he discussed piracy in hip hop and how it’s helped move the culture forward (something major record labels probably doesn’t agree with). Young Guru even went so far as to say that in the future, kids won’t just be downloading music for free, they’ll also download a pair of sneakers for free. Sounds exciting but I gotta admit, I’m still trying to wrap my brain around how that’s going to happen.

During November 17’s TEDYouth, World Up pulled in their Living Remix Project, recorded teenagers who attended the event and had them share how TEDYouth inspired them. Young Guru then took the vocals and remixed them, the result of which is below. Very dope. As soon as video of his TED talk is available I’ll post that too.

Run That Back:

Technology News: DJ Fusion & TEDxOrlando — “Hip Hop Is Not Dead” (Video).