1 Million Cups: H3 (Healthy Hip Hop)

The 1 Million Cups presentation that I watched was about H3:Healthy Hip Hop. H3 is a company that produces Hip Hop influenced content that promotes youth education and physical activity. Their main vision is to “motivate families to build healthy lifestyles.”

My first impression of this company was they were very positive, fun and energetic! I love the concept. Being a Hip Hop dance instructor who works with young children, I can see that Hip Hop culture is a hugely influential medium in today’s youth. This company seems to have a good idea of how to use Hip Hop to motivate kids into creating positive habits regarding their education and fitness.

H3 showed many strengths during their presentation. They did a great job of describing the variety of products and services they offer. They have CDs and DVDs that can be purchased for Hip Hop dance/fitness for elementary, middle school and high school students. The H3 crews also perform at several schools, after school programs, recreation centers and birthday parties in the Kansas City area. This company also has a working partnership with the LeBron James Family Foundation as well as other like-minded organizations.

The only weaknesses that I saw in their presentation were more technical. There was a moment when the microphone was not working for one of the presenters. They also had a sound issue when two of the presenters were trying to perform one of their songs. They did a great job of not letting those technical difficulties negatively impact the presentation as a whole. They were also very personable and seemed comfortable speaking in front of a crowd. My suggestions for this would have been to actually start the presentation with the actual performance, then go into the speaking part. I think this would have helped with the flow of the presentation as a whole.

The future of this company is really exciting to listen to. Some of their future projects are a weekly television show, as stated above, as well as more educational based Hip Hop music that teaches history, mathematics and other school subjects. The company is very interactive. Their website, H3tv.com, is where they house all of their content. The website is very user friendly and has tons of information, games and videos that kids and their parents can access. As a dance instructor, I will definitely be purchasing some of their CDs. I think they give a great positive alternative to what is already out there. I enjoyed their 1 Million Cups presentation very much.