American Hip Hop Artists Visit Bahrain

DJs Edan and Paten at one of their performances.

The U.S. Embassy sponsored the visit of American hip-hop artists Edan Portnoy and Paten Locke in Bahrain from April 4-7. The artists performed at the Unif1ed stage in Seef Mall and Al-Riwaq Gallery’s Bohemian building. Additionally they conducted an interactive workshop with Bahraini youth where they discussed the history of dee-jaying and hip-hop culture and showed participants some basic techniques including scratching and back-spinning.  

Edan is known for his unlikely take on hip-hop culture, where traditional rap songs are often skewed by 60’s rock samples, tape echoes, and foreign language choruses. His latest mega-mix, entitled ‘Echo Party’, is an astounding mix of dance, rap, and punk that utilizes everything from turntables to tape echo, glockenspiel to guitar, and moog to kazoo. Paten Locke has his own spin on Hip Hop culture. Based in  Jacksonville, Florida, Paten recently debuted his first solo album.