Museum of Pop Culture marks 50 years of hip-hop with new exhibit

SEATTLE (KOMO) — The Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) is celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop throughout the month of August. Here are some events, exhibits, and pop-ups honoring hip-hop’s history.

Online Hip-Hop Collection Vault

Hip-hop fans can now access more than 1,300 artifacts from MoPOP's collection on the museum's online hip-hop collection vault. The museum said the artifacts, dating from 1973 to 2000, capture the essence of the people and communities who created the global pop culture phenomenon.

The collection was curated by Adeerya Johnson and includes flyers, fashion, oral histories, photographs, jewelry, handwritten lyrics, and even food.

Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop

Currently at MoPOP, the Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop exhibit features four decades of photography from the late 1970s to today. The museum said the display documents a revolution in music, politics, race relations, fashion, and culture.

Featuring more than 170 iconic images of hip-hop’s most influential artists and items, the exhibit gives a rare look into the creative process of photography. MoPOP says it examines the evolution of hip-hop and how it connects the world through experiences, identities, and places that have shaped the world’s most popular music genre.

The Contact High exhibit highlights include:

• Exclusive images of some of hip-hop’s biggest influences, including Missy Elliot, Jay-Z, Queen Latifah, Kanye West, and Tupac Shakur.
• More than 75 unedited contact sheets, ranging from Barron Claiborne’s iconic Notorious B.I.G. portraits to images of Aaliyah, Wu-Tang Clan, Sir Mix-A-Lot, and more.
• The Dapper Dan jacket made for Rakim and MF DOOM’s mask.
• Items from MoPOP’s permanent collection, which includes early rap battle fliers, Grandmaster Flash’s turntables, Tupac Shakur manuscripts, Flavor magazines, and costumes from Sha-Rock and The Notorious B.I.G.
• A documentary short film featuring Contact High photographers at work and in conversation.

My Mic Sounds Nice

The MoPOP is also featuring a pop-up exhibit called My Mic Sounds Nice. The museum says the exhibit focuses on how Black women tell their stories, express their style, show off their lyrical skill and sexuality, as they navigate Black womanhood, and name their artistry as founders of hip-hop music and culture.

The exhibit was also curated by Adeerya Johnson, the MoPOP's associate curator and hip-hop feminist scholar.

Throughout the exhibit is a chronological history of how Black women shape their image, sound, and fashion while navigating sexist challenges posed by societal norms and expectations that exist in hip-hop culture.

If you're interested in viewing these exhibits, you can visit MoPOP’s website for tickets.

Check out the full gallery of images from the exhibit here.