Students, music producers, aspiring hip-hop artists and rap fans gathered in Emerson Hall Saturday to hear speakers from around the country discuss hip-hop culture and the business behind it.

More than 150 people attended "The NextLevel" conference, which featured a keynote address by multi-platinum artist KRS-One and panel discussions on the music industry, the artistry behind rap music and the influence of hip-hop culture on the American public.

KRS-One's speech highlighted an effort by panelists to define hip-hop culture and some of its more subtle elements.

He read from a recently compiled book he helped write that divided hip-hop culture into nine categories--from street fashion to graffiti art to dancing. According to KRS-One, the book was the culmination of several years of research and surveys.

"[Hip-hop] is the study of self-transformation and the pursuit of self-expression," he said, trying to bring a unifying definition to the diverse elements he described in his speech.

KRS-One also said it was important for hip-hop artists to understand the power of their song lyrics and take responsibility for those words.

"We have had an ignorance of our own spoken word. Hip-hop says to...be the things you are thinking about," he said. "If you can't go out and be it, you should stop thinking it."

The conference was organized by Candice L. Hoyes '99 and Erika Fullwood '99 in conjunction with the Black Students Association (BSA) and the Undergraduate Council. Proceeds from the conference went to the Area Four Youth Center in Cambridge.

KRS-One's speech highlighted a weekend of activities that began Friday afternoon with a screening of the movie "Straight from the Streets" and continued with a KRS concert Friday night and panel discussions on Saturday.

A show featuring hip-hop performances took place in the Lowell dining hall Saturday night.

Saturday morning featured what conference organizers described as "Power Sessions."

During these sessions, speakers focused on the business side of hip-hop and on how minorities can assume higher positions in the music industry, according to a pamphlet distributed to conference participants.

Speakers included Chris Washington of Atlantic Records; Wendy Day, whose Rap Coalition aims to combat the exploitation of urban musicians; and ABC News correspondent Farai Chideya '90, author of "Don't Believe the Hype: CulturalMisinformation about African Americans."

"A repetitive lesson I heard was that, in themusic business, you've got to network," saidHerman Banks, a member of a Cambridge-basedhip-hop group. "Not everyone wants to see yousucceed. It's a gamble."

Afternoon panelists focused on the music andcontent of hip-hop.

One topic frequently discussed was the changesthat hip-hop music and artists have undergone asthey have become part of mainstream culture.

O'Neal Rowe, a partner with the Bostonmarketing firm MetroConcepts, said the profitpotential of the music transformed hip-hop andcorrupted it in some ways.

"Intelligent heads back in the day found waysto make this their livelihood," Rowe said. "That'swhat changed hip-hop."

Dmitri Leger, a writer and editor for TheSource magazine, addressed some audience members'concern that rap music, which began as a form ofexpression for blacks, was being taken over bywhite musicians and executives.

"Hip-hop started out as a black-on-blackconversation, but now it's a black-on-worldconversation," Leger said. "There's somethinguniquely black about hip-hop, however, that at theend of the day, white artists won't be able toduplicate."

Leger said he thought hip-hop had expandedbeyond its originally narrow definition.

"I think people have to give up on the idea offinding an artist who represents all of hip-hop,and start accepting performers for what they dowell," Leger said.

While much of the second afternoon panelfocused on how to prevent rap artists fromcompromising their music in order to succeed,panelists stressed that making money does notautomatically make one into a "sell-out."

"Being underground is not about being poor,"said Kevin Shand, a representative of RawkusRecords. "It's about what you have to trade inorder to make money."

Panelists in the afternoon also discussed thequestion of who was responsible for the messagesthat hip-hop disseminates to the public. The topicwas particularly prominent in a panel aboutfeminism and hip-hop.

Tracii McGregor, a writer for The Source, saidthat record companies spread too many images ofsex, rather than messages that would influencewomen more positively.

"We have to hear a variety of voices, but therecord industry doesn't give us that," McGregorsaid. "Women need to be shown they can negotiatetheir way without having to use sex."

Several of the afternoon panelists said theresponsibility for what gets played on the radioand TV rests in the hands of the public as well aswith the media.

"We don't decide what you're going to hear,"Shand said. "It's much more of a dialog [betweenconsumers and corporations]."

At the end of the panel discussions, McGregortold the audience that they should use what theylearned at the conference to educate people whodid not attend the conference.

"We need to take these dialogues out of HarvardUniversity and bring them out on the street," hesaid