Sometime today an event/press conference is happening in which the Smithsonian’s plan for a permanent hip hop collection will be publicized with an array of collectibles from:
pioneering hip-hop artists such as Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Fab 5 Freddy – [who] will blow that dust off and carry them to a Manhattan hotel to turn them over to National Museum of American History officials.
While it may be a fun event, more importantly, the Smithsonian announcement is a major legitimizing phase in the development of hip hop:
The project, the beginnings of a permanent collections, will gather objects that trace hip-hop’s origins in the Bronx in the 1970s to its current global reach. It is expected to cost as much as $2 million and take up to five years to complete.
While the AP report gets part of the story of hip hop right, from hip hop’s global rise to its incorporation "into marketing to sell everything from cars and clothing to food and furniture," author Marcus Franklin apparently needs a bit more education since he considers hip hop culture’s "main elements" to be "rappers, DJs and breakdancers." Um . . . graffiti artists! There we go. That’s why they call it the Four Elements of Hip Hop.
He also must buy into the erroneous notion that hip hop begins with The Sugarhill Gang since he states that collectibles have been hidden away for "nearly three decades."
Hey, but that’s why we need some educational materials, right?
The collection will be called Hip-Hop Won’t Stop: the Beat, the Rhymes, the Life, which seems quite fortunate for Jeff Chang’s upcoming tour to promote the recent paperback release of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation.
The AP report says that the money for the collection has yet to be raised and will come from the private sector. The $2 million will be used to "pay for artifacts, record oral histories, hold consultations with advisory groups and mount an exhibit telling hip-hop’s story." You know, although today’s event is supposed to involve "donations", given the combination of Russell Simmons and various hip hop elders who probably feel they need to get something more than recognition out of the deal, it’s difficult to imagine that financial promises have not been made to today’s protagonists.
Now where did I stash that tin foil grill that kicked it off in the Dirty Dirty?
The Smithsonians failure to acknowledge Graffiti as a Hip Hop Element is another attempt to rewrite history.
It’s not the Smithsonian necessarily. I haven’t seen anything from them. This was from an Associated Press writer. But we’ll see what documents the Smithsonian puts out. Obviously, leaving out graffiti would not be a good thing but it would surprise me if they did that.