Amina
MC, Advocate

Amina was born in Chicagoland, but grew up in her father’s homeland of Nigeria before returning to the US permanently following high school. As a member of Urbanized Music with husband Coolout Chris, she’s a well-respected MC and performer, but that’s only part of what makes Amina important to Chicago. She co-founded Chicago Hip-Hop Heritage month in 2003 (officially recognized by mayor Richard M. Daley and the City of Chicago) which celebrates the city’s local hip-hop arts and community throughout the month of July. Amina co-created B-Girl Power, an all-inclusive movement to celebrate, empower and promote true representations of women in hip-hop and push to control the exploitation of female images in the media. She is director of Chicago Hip-Hop Initiative and teaches a hip-hop history class at Columbia College Chicago.

Amina has served on panels with many prominent figures of music and academia, including Gloria Steinem, Fat Joe, Dr. Carol Adams, DMC and Bakari Kitwana and, in 2010, was selected to serve as a United States Cultural Envoy where she spent two weeks leading a team of Chicago hip-hop artists through seven regions in the West African nation of Cote d’Ivoire. While there, the artists performed, conducted workshops and more to help foster a better understanding of American culture while encouraging young people to use hip-hop progressively. This experience was chronicled in the documentary Keep it Moving – The Movie: Chicago Hip-Hop to Cote d’Ivoire (produced and edited by Amina) and premiered to much acclaim at the 2011 Chicago International Movies & Music Festival (CIMMfest).

NOTABLE RELEASES
Amina: The A   (album, 2007)
UMAC: Urbanized Music, Amina & Chris   (album, 2011)

AFFILIATIONS
Chi-Rock Nation, Urbanized Music