I woke up this morning to a story on the radio about the new Hip Hop museum in the Smithsonian. I knew all the songs and all the people they interviewed. What a strange feeling that was.
In the early 1980's, I was a kid living near Detroit. At summer camp, I listened to the Sugar Hill Gang. Late at night I would listen to this Detroit radio station and hear all this krazy, awesome music. I didnt know who did it, and i never saw it in a store but I loved those tapes.
Years later, rap exploded. Run-DMC, Ice-T, Curtis Blow... It's funny to think about it now because I am so totally out of touch with the baggy-pants, Kangol hat, hip-hop crowd that is in style today. I imagine that if you asked any of my MBA classmates if I listened to rap they would laugh out loud.
Then again, I guess that makes sense since the music I liked is now in a museum.
At the Smithsonian, Hip-Hop Is History
Museum Launches Collection of Genre
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Ice and a handful of other urban legends packed a conference room full of television cameras and reporters Tuesday at a Midtown Manhattan hotel to unveil a Smithsonian initiative for Washington's National Museum of American History, "Hip-Hop Won't Stop: The Beat, the Rhymes, the Life." The goal is to gather artifacts donated by rappers, dancers, DJs and record executives and amass a definitive collection, one that captures hip-hop's 30-year journey from inner-city subculture to international phenomenon.
