LISTEN UP, PEOPLE. It’s about art. Last Saturday, 150 members of Seattle’s hip-hop and music communities gathered outside of Westlake Mall in the drizzling rain. They exchanged ideas, formed circles around free-style rappers, and listened as the most influential and well-known among them posited peaceful resistance to the negative images of hip-hop culture currently pervading the media. A park bench became the de facto stage, allowing for impromptu speeches and small group discussions.

Laura Kelley, also known as Piece from the spoken word/hip-hop duo Piece of Sol, put hip-hop to me this way: “It’s whatever uplifts you. Whatever puts the hip in your hop. It’s an art form. People don’t want to accept that it’s just that simple.”

The rally was held as a response to the shooting that took place in Pioneer Square on September 23. Politicians and the media have blamed the Bohemian Caf鬠a popular nightspot, as well as hip-hop itself for the violence. Several city newspapers and news broadcasts referred to the tragedy as the “Hip-Hop Shooting.”

What’s troubling is that those who are wagging their fingers at hip-hop know precious little about the art form. The brand of hip-hop represented by those in attendance on Saturday is drastically different from the self-congratulatory, defamatory style of rappers like Eminem. Just as there are varying forms of rock music, sculpture, or literature, rap and hip-hop exist on a wide variety of planes. As Kutfather, perhaps the granddaddy of Seattle’s hip-hop DJs, expressed, “Let’s call an orange an orange and an apple an apple, shall we?”

The goal of Seattle’s hip-hop community, as clearly expressed by those standing in the rain on Saturday, is self-expression and unity. The rally participants that I spoke to—young adults active in and enthusiastic about Seattle’s musical community—said that clubs like the Baltic Room and groups like Jumbalaya foster an incredibly safe, love-infused environment.

Saturday’s rally made only oblique references to the shooting, instead centering on forming a cohesive unit of positive force for the future. The most action-oriented event was the simple passing of a notebook. Participants of various ethnicities and ages entered their cell numbers, first names, and Web site URLs, some tagging the pages with graffiti-like signatures.

Jonathon Moore of rap group Source of Labor made this much clear: “This is not about ‘Fuck the police.'” Moore, Kelley, and Kutfather all stressed that the rally was not about pointing fingers or getting anyone fired, but about coming together as a community of people who love hip-hop; the music, the rhythm, the rhymes, the people, and the expression.

Need more hip in your hop? Check out Spin’s mix tape and color commentary.