dinkytowna BEEN done dead.

by Simi Murumba


The Dinkytowner Cafe bids farewell on May 31 and I'm not mourning.

It is home to what was once a live and youthful hip hop community - full of momentum. But for the past year or so, The Dinkytowner has done little more than represent the dead horse we are preverbially beatboxing over. I hate to be the one to say it, but it's gotten pretty sad.

Think about how little we're losing, versus how much more we should be doing anyway. It was a sinking ship.

Hip hop and the Dinkytowner are like that awful couple who, when paired, do nothing but lay around, just getting stoned and ordering delivery food because they've been in sweatpants watching reality TV for days. You know the ones. They're the lameness enablers. The lamenablers.

All I know is, it's time to crack a window.

Let's take them out of their comfort zones. Let's push hip hop back out into the dating world. Let's try new things. Let's help rap music make some new friendships. Let's explore the city. It's what springtime's all about!

That way, hip hop really can be the tool for building community connections we often boast it to be. This can be a great opportunity if you choose to look at it that way.

Besides - I'm actually rather relieved to know that I won't be spending any of my precious summer nights navigating my way through a sea of Bro's, only to end up hanging around in a basement. Followed by macaroni pizza. I'm over it.

It's always sad to see a small business go under. And to its credit, the Dinky was a very inclusive and supportive space. But we're ready for the challenge of branching out and taking what we do to the next level. The closing of the Dinkytowner is exactly the kick that the music scene needed to get hungry again. And I'm looking forward to a summer of better shows and funner times with the revival of Hip Hop -- the Bachelor.