The Department of Afroamerican and African Studies is hosting an exhibition celebrating 50 years since the birth of hip-hop in the New York City borough the Bronx. The exhibition, which will run from April to September in Haven Hall room G648, serves to highlight the culture that developed from the emergence of hip-hop, which has influenced society, fashion, language and the entertainment industry over the past five decades. For marginalized communities in urban areas, such as the Bronx and Detroit, hip-hop served as a means of self-expression through music and dance.
The exhibit draws attention to the history of hip-hop within Black and Latinx communities and highlights the five central elements of hip-hop — rapping, DJing, break dancing, graffiti and historical knowledge. Vibrant neon posters cover the room’s walls, highlighting popular hip-hop artists including 50 Cent, Kanye West, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Cardi B, Snoop Dogg and Megan Thee Stallion.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Rackham student Dani Williams, one of the exhibit’s curators, said she wants visitors to leave the exhibit having learned more about female hip-hop artists and the importance of their work for the music industry.
“I would just like to hope that folks really see that women have dedicated a lot of their time and energy to this industry.” Williams said. “We need to find ways to make it safe and fun and as comfortable as possible for those women because they inspire folks. I think about Megan Thee Stallion and all she’s been through, and just through popular culture and how she utilizes her trauma to create art. That is what I hope that most folks would take away from this exhibit, is that these are creators that have taken trauma, pain, gun violence and gang violence and turned those issues into something really beautiful.”
Co-curator Elizabeth James wrote in an email to The Daily that nationwide acknowledgments of the anniversary of hip-hop inspired her to create an exhibit at the University.
“After reading and seeing so many tributes to the 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop that were occurring across the country and internationally, it seemed like the right time for GalleryDAAS to celebrate this momentous occasion,” James wrote. “I consulted with Professors Stephen Ward of DAAS/RC and Diedre Smith from the SMTD, and they along with our Gallery Manager Dani Williams began the process of choosing what to include. Holden Hughes, an undergraduate assistant helped us compile the playlist. We also took a survey from the community of who they felt were their favorite hip-hop artists.”
In an email to The Daily, LSA junior Holden Hughes wrote about his involvement in the exhibit’s creation and his work in curating the playlist that accompanies it.
“Since hip-hop is firstly an auditory medium, they felt that a soundtrack for the gallery exhibit would be crucial to making it complete,” Hughes said. “I ensured that I covered as many eras, important artists, sounds, and time periods as I could, so that if you spend 15 minutes in the gallery, you could hear something you knew and something that was new to you. It’s 100 songs and somewhere around 7 hours, so each time you visit the gallery, you’re likely to hear something different.”
Hughes also emphasized the importance of the exhibit for understanding the culture and art surrounding hip-hop.
“I think this exhibit is incredibly important because hip-hop and Black art deserve to be taken seriously in academic contexts,” Hughes wrote. “Too often, we overlook the arts, and more specifically black art, as valuable tools in and components of knowledge. I also am generally a huge hip-hop head, and have gained so much from studying the culture and the music over the years. I want visitors to be able to take away the idea that hip-hop isn’t dead, has never been dead, and will never die. It’s more than just what you hear on the radio: hip-hop is art, dance, storytelling, knowledge, fashion, entrepreneurship, culture.”
Stephen Ward, professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, wrote in an email to The Daily he believes hip-hop has redefined the music industry, reshaping its aesthetic, commercial activity and artistic expression and evolving over the 20th century.
“Hip Hop’s influence on society as a whole is reflected in its ubiquitous presence in nearly all facets of popular culture,” Ward said. “When Hip Hop emerged in the 1970s, the larger society did not recognize it. During most of the 1980s, the larger society thought of Hip Hop as a novelty and questioned if it was just a passing fad that would not last. During the 1990s Hip Hop solidified itself as a musical genre and began to impact other areas of artistic, cultural, and commercial activity such as TV and movies. In the 21st century, Hip Hop is solidly part of popular culture.”
Daily Summer Managing News Editor Ellen Drejza can be reached at edrejza@umich.edu.