Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Kicks Off Hip-Hop Exhibit

11/10/1999 2:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(11/10/99, 2 p.m. ET) - The Cleveland-based Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame And Museum officially kicks off their latest exhibit, Roots, Rhymes & Rage: The Hip-Hop Story, today. The exhibit, which runs from Nov. 11 through August 2000, is the first major museum exhibit ever mounted on hip-hop culture.

Hip-hop stars Public Enemy, Grandmaster Flash, Slick Rick, Nas, Krayzie Bone, and Outkast will perform live at the exclusive kick-off party tonight at the Hall in Cleveland.

Roots, Rhymes & Rage: The Hip-Hop Story highlights the music, language, and lifestyle of hip-hop culture. Patrons will explore the history of hip-hop's social, political, and economic influence on virtually every aspect of American popular culture, such as film, fashion and advertisement. The exhibit, which examines four primary elements of hip-hop--DJing, MCing, graffiti writing, and dancing, was coordinated by Jim Henke, the curator of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame And Museum.

During an interview with LAUNCH, Henke explained the museum's motivation to mount the monumental hip-hop exhibit. "We started to think about doing this two years ago; we wanted to do something more contemporary. We tossed around a few ideas but the thing we kept coming back to was hip-hop. I guess one of the big things about it was not only was it dominating the charts, but also what really appealed to us was the fact that this whole culture had so permeated popular culture. It was much more than a style of music, but it was a whole cultural change, and we thought that was interesting to take on."

After Roots, Rhymes & Rage: The Hip-Hop Story runs its course at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, it will travel the United States as a traveling exhibit.

Features on Public Enemy and Slick Rick are available on LAUNCH.com.

-- Karu F. Daniels, New York

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