Hip-Hop is almost 50 years old, is the number 1 genre of music in the world, and has huge sections in the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of African American women. The culture even has its own institution being created in the Bronx, the Universal Hip Hop Museum.
Now, as reported by AllHipHop.com, the Smithsonian is dropping a seminal work that will include 120 tracks nine CDs, a 300-page book with 11 essays, extensive track-by-track liner notes, and images of your favorite rap stars that have never been published.
The Andrew W. Mellon Director of NMAAHC Kevin Young stated in a press release, “Born in the Bronx and raised across the American West and South, Hip Hop is one of the most influential genres of music in the modern era.”
“Through beats, dynamic rhymes, and pointed lyricism,” Young continues. Hip Hop has provided a platform for communities and generations to voice their ongoing struggles and has changed society and culture around the world.”
Spelmanite Shani Jamila, one of the project’s advisors, worked on the project and made the announcement earlier this summer. Other contributors include historian Bill Adler, the man behind so much of the early day publicity of Def Jam and Rush Management artists, Chuck D, the lead emcee in Public Enemy, Adam Bradley, Janette Beckman, Joe Conzo and Martha Cooper, and art direction from Def Jam’s first creative director, Cey Adams.
The music will start with the first recorded track of the Fatback Band’s track “King Tim III (Personality)” and the Sugar Hill Gang’s 1980 classic “Rapper’s Delight (7″ Single Version).” It ends with songs like Kanye West’s “Blood on the Leaves” and Drake’s “Started From The Bottom.”
How appropriate!!!! The culture definitely started from the bottom and now … WE HERE!