Thursday, November 12th 2009

By selma al-samarrai

This year’s seventh annual Ontario Universities Competition for Hip Hop (O.U.C.H.) will be held at the Burridge Gym in McMaster University on Nov. 21.

O.U.C.H. was founded in 2003 by a student in the University of Waterloo and has increased in size and popularity since. Five of the six annual O.U.C.H. competitions have been held at McMaster University due to the fact that the winning University hosts the competition the following year, and McMaster’s team has won five times since O.U.C.H. first began.

Kylie Thompson, co-chair of O.U.C.H. for this academic year, explained that a varying number of 10 to 20 universities participate in the annual O.U.C.H. competition. This year, 15 Universities are participating in O.U.C.H. There are nine committee members in O.U.C.H. and a total of approximately 40 people, including volunteers.

In addition, this is the first year that McMaster’s team is officially involved with a charity—War Child Canada. Thompson explained, “We hope to donate whatever profits we make to War Child Canada. War Child is a really great committee that also has a chapter here at Mac so we collaborated with them.”

War Child Canada is a Canadian Charity is a Canadian Charity that provides humanitarian assistance to children affected by war around the world.

Last year’s O.U.C.H. competition was held at the Hamilton Place Theatre and garnered the attendance of an estimated 1,700 people. This year’s performers include hip hop up-and-coming artist Trish and performance group Rated Inc.

Thompson concluded, “I think at least for the dance community at Mac, it’s a huge source of pride being that we won five out of six prizes that have ever been given out. I feel its an entertaining event, so much fun and so much energy within the room that its just so much fun for whoever goes to it.”

Tags: competition, Hip-Hop, OUCH