Grammy Museum celebrates 50 years of hip-hop dynamics

From a flyer from parties in the ’70s where hip-hop was born to a political essay by a teenage Tupac Shakur: the interactive exhibition “Hip-Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit” at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles takes a journey through 50 years of the ‘dynamic’ genre.

“We want people to be able to literally ‘touch’ hip-hop. It’s a multimedia and diverse experience created so that even an unwavering fan of hip-hop can learn something new,” said Adam Bradley, one of the exhibition’s curators, in a statement interview with EFE and founder and director of the Race and Popular Culture Laboratory (RAP Lab) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

The installation opens to the public this Saturday and will be available for a year, during which additional activities such as workshops, lectures and signing sessions are planned.

The exhibition offers a tour of the dance, lettering, fashion, graffiti and objects of some of the artists who laid the foundation for the culture born in New York in 1973, as well as those who keep it alive today to hold.

“It is an exhibition that tells about the past, present and future of hip-hip”, Felicia Angeja Viator, DJ, author of the book “To Live and Defy In LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America” ​​​​and also curator of the exhibition, told EFE.

It is worth mentioning that in this space there is an exhibition dedicated to the iconic Colombian singer Shakira, who was inaugurated last March. The exhibition, which is on permanent display in a gallery dedicated to Latin music, features forty (40) objects from Shakira’s personal archive, such as the two (2) outfits she wore during her 2020 Super Bowl performance or her electric Gibson Firebird guitar covered in 70,000 black Swarovski crystals.

Also on display will be several composition booklets and three original films recorded during the tours, which the winner of thirteen Latin Grammys and three American Grammys made in different parts of the world.

Also on display are artifacts such as the iconic red leather jacket of The Notorious BIG and the white suit of Tupac Shakur, two controversial ’90s rap figures whose tragic deaths marked the height of the musical rivalry between the coasts.

“They were friends at first, they had an absurd period of animosity and I’m sure if they were alive they would have gotten over that and be friends again,” Bradley said.

The exhibition is completed with interactive maps that locate the hip-hop scene in the United States, interviews with musicians like MC Lyte or Cordae about their creative process, and even a turntable that invites visitors to try their hand at the work of a DJ.

Female artists form an essential part of the exhibition and some notable names include Beyoncé, Lauryn Hill, Queen Latifah, as well as The Conscious Daughters, Kamaiyah and Saweetie.

“As a DJ, it was important for me to show how women have been present all this time and that they are not just isolated producers or artists,” said Viator.




Source: El heraldo

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