With big-name hip-hop acts like Talib Kweli and Ghostface Killah performing in town, local groups are doing their part to make this a State College hip-hop week.

Penn State hip-hop staple Audio Imagery has organized Spring Bling, a culmination of diverse hip-hop acts that are joining forces to showcase what State College emcees have to offer.

Spring Bling features five groups and five DJs, Audio Imagery (AI) frontman Jason Browne (senior-mechanical engineering) said. Browne said he got all the acts together so people can recognize that there's a hip-hop scene in State College.

"This kind of music is being made and put out constantly," Browne said. "I wanted people to know there's going to be a place to go if they want to support [hip-hop]."

Included in the lineup are AI, Tweek Music, newcomer SK & PADE Records, Ivy League and Pittsburgh group Blackout Entertainment.

Spring Bling was organized to bring back a monthly forum for hip-hop similar to the event Hip Hop Anonymous, which was a regular event back in 2004, Browne said.

AI and the group Ivy League performed at the Tall Shiva Hookah Lounge, 224 W. College Ave., and developed an underground following that Browne said he hopes to bring back.

Browne said he first threw around the idea back in January, and once he got the go-ahead, he contacted friends and fellow artists.

After collaborating on a couple of tracks and performing with AI, former student Dane "Bricks" Childs, of Blackout Entertainment, is bringing his group from the City of Steel to perform one of his last shows.

After withdrawing from Penn State to attend University of Pittsburgh to be closer to his daughter, Childs said he is taking some time off from performing to focus on the business side of promoting his group and to take care of his family.

"It's definitely a stretch financially to pay for the music, family and school," Childs said.

Despite his pending retirement, Childs has been busy promoting the group's new album, which will be available April 28, and preparing to launch an online radio station, Blackout Radio, featuring the group's own music, as well as unsigned artists from around the world.

"We've gotten a good response from all over," Childs said. "Our fan base gets bigger every day."

Although his group hasn't performed a lot in State College, Childs said he's excited to be working with all the other groups and to get a large venue.

"When I was a student two years ago, the hip-hop scene wasn't supported," he said. "With AI bringing everyone together, it shows everybody there's other artists, and I feel blessed to be up [on stage] and perform with everyone."

A relative newcomer to the local rap scene, Derek Laubach (junior-business), or "SK," has performed with Childs and Browne before and will be sharing the stage with some of the other artists in his group PADE Records, which stands for Pennsylvania and Delaware.

A Wilmington native, Laubach has played at large events at University of Delaware and has only released a limited amount of music.

"Less is more when you put out good music," Laubauch said. "The hip-hop industry is the hardest to make it in, but the cheapest music to produce."

While living in Wilmington, Laubach said he had numerous run-ins with the law and said he has turned his incarceration and negative experiences into positives through his music.

"I don't lie when I'm up there [on stage]," Laubach said. "My lyrics are the most sincere; music is about being real."

Laubach said he came to Penn State to escape the violence from his past.

However, he has found that no matter where you go, bad things are bound to happen.

He said he knew all three Penn State students who were recently murdered -- Michael Donahue, Youngcheol Park and Tyrone Myers -- and he wants to dedicate his performance to them.