Features / Sustainability
Hip-Hop Garden brings beats and roots to Easton
Walk through Easton on a warm summer morning and you might spot a group scanning the verges for herbs, medicines and edibles.
And no, not wide-eyed students on their way to afters.
This is the Hip-Hop Garden: a project that blends the beats of hip hop with the roots of permaculture.
Led by artist-educators MoYah and Solomon (also know by his artist name KMT), the sessions promote wellbeing and entrepreneurship through hip hop and nature.
MoYah tells me: “Everyone is welcome. People build communities, gain confidence, reconnect with nature – and start to heal.”
Permaculture is an approach to designing gardens, farms, and even communities by mimicking the patterns and relationships found in healthy natural ecosystems.
The goal is usually to create self-sustaining systems that care for the earth, support people, and share resources fairly.
“Both hip hop and permaculture are about transformation, resilience, and building communities from the margins” – photo: Inaz Hussain
Solomon explains: “In permaculture, they talk about valuing the edges and margins.
“In nature, that’s where the most biodiversity happens – and in society, that’s where the most creativity and innovation comes from – it’s where hip hop came from.
“Let’s bring the two together because they are both about transformation, resilience, and building communities from the margins.”
In Easton, hip hop isn’t just heard – it’s now planted, tended, and allowed to grow.
Hip hop and permaculture both teach the same lesson: start with what you’ve got, value what’s overlooked and build from the ground up.
Solomon Kawal explains the benefits of sedum roofs – photo: Inaz Hussain
Stepping into the Pickle Factory on a muggy Thursday morning, those new to the group do not fully know what to expect.
Will they be getting their hands dirty? Cook up a plant-based feast? Or pen a verse?
A dozen attendees head out onto the streets of Easton, soon discovering a plum tree.
Solomon urges them to zoom in on the nature around, to look at things in a way people don’t normally do day-to-day.
It’s not long before they’re foraging all manner of plants: juicy berries, bay leaves and nettles on the Bristol-to-Bath cycle path.
We are reminded how many resourceful plants surround us.
They’re on the edges, in the cracks, above our heads and in the ground.
“If food is this freely available,” asks Solomon to the group, “why do we live in a system that makes us pay so much for it?”
“We start each session by simply grounding and observing nature” – photo: Carla Wakfer
The group session has to come to an end; otherwise, they could spend all day on the cycle path, as there is so much to discover.
With food firmly off the brain, talk turns to making music – the other core tenet of this group.
Miles Ramsay, 18, from Easton, tells me he joined the Hip-Hop Garden looking for like-minded people who love to create: “I’ve connected with people I wouldn’t normally talk to.”
With mentoring from MoYah and studio time, the project helps participants like Miles hone their craft in a safe, encouraging environment.
“My own track crashes out next month – my first proper release.”
Miles Ramsay records his bars in the studio – photo: MoYah
Caroline from Stokes Croft recalls her favourite moment was recording in a studio: “I’d never been in a studio before. Hearing others lay down their bars before me, this energy just took over. It was amazing.”
For Tariq, also from Easton, the project fostered a newfound appreciation for nature. “Being somewhere green and not glued to your phone makes all the difference.”
Arriving at the community garden at the Trinity Centre, they’re all encouraged to stop, listen, smell and reflect on our surroundings.
“In nature, everything has a purpose and a place — and so does every person in this project” – photo: Carla Wakfer
Participants have included refugees, LGBTQ+ people, neurodiverse people, and those overcoming substance misuse.
“Even though you may not be experiencing the same problems or previous trauma, it forces you to recognise those differences.” MoYah says.
“The Hip-Hop Garden is creating new communities and I love that, because in nature, you have to value everything.
“Everything has a purpose, everyone has something to give, to receive, to share – and that’s what hip hop is.”
Solomon tells me a refugee group from another programme wrote a song about freedom: “The first song they’d ever made together. It was heart‑wrenching.”
Tragically, one of them later passed away.
“That’s the reality of working with vulnerable people… and why we do this work.”
The Hip-Hop Garden has allowed many beneficiaries to record their work professionally – photo: MoYah
The seed of this wholesome Hip-Hop Garden was planted nearly two decades ago, when Solomon found himself at a crossroads.
A passionate devotee of hip hop, he’d made a career as a DJ and promoter, but grew frustrated with the negativity in the scene.
“I was finding that there was a lot of misogyny and aggression, so I found it quite restrictive.”
Everything changed when a man named Randy, a permaculture expert, moved into Solomon’s home and transformed his derelict garden into a haven bursting with life.
Solomon was able to find peace in this garden following the death of his mother, and he wanted other people to be able to experience that.
The May Project Gardens began: “We were completely self-funded, very DIY,” he recalls.
Solomon would later fuse the idea with his love of hip hop and the Hip-Hop Garden was born.
“We don’t have money, but what do we have in abundance? People and space. So we built a project around exchange, sharing and collaboration.”
Miles Ramsay shares his bars in a cypher – photo: Carla Wakfer
After a highly educational walk, they return to The Pickle Factory, and soon find themselves sitting in a cypher.
A cypher is a hip hop circle – everyone is working on bars to share in this circle of trust, propped up by the solid beats blasting from a bassy bluetooth speaker.
You are free to share what you’ve been working on, collaborate and bounce ideas off each other.
Graffiti artist Dan effortlessly spits an incredible 16 bars about our cycle-path foraging excursion. A tough act to follow.
MoYah is expanding sessions across the South West, with a new program soon starting in Gloucester and plans for Wells, adapting plans to each community.
When asked what is the one message they would give to Bristol?
“Investment – make it regular. Deepening the work means lasting change,” says Solomon.
“Appreciate and engage with the beauty around you,” says MoYah.
The current programme in Bristol is happening every first Thursday until November and you can follow the May Project Gardens on Instagram @may_gdn.
Carla Wakfer is reporting on Easton as part of Bristol24/7’s Community Reporters programme, aiming to amplify marginalised voices and communities often overlooked by mainstream media.
This initiative is funded by our public, Better Business members and a grant from the Nisbets Trust.
Main photo: Carla Wakfer
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