Hip Hop hoo-hah in the 'hood

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Grandmaster Flash - Image: www.grandmasterflash.com
Grandmaster Flash
Image: link

Plans for the World's first Hip Hop museum which will be based in New York have been announced. New York City Council has allotted £800,000 for the building which will be located in the Bronx, but there is controversy over what will and will-not be allowed to be an exhibit.

Bronx council member Larry Seabrook has opposed any elements of 'Gangsta Rap' being displayed, saying:

We're not talking about gangsta rap, we're talking about Hip Hop. Anybody can be a thug.

This means that recent artists such as 50 cent and Lil' Kim would probably not be represented, neither presumably, would older acts such as NWA or Ice T.

Early pioneers such as Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC and Afrika Bambaata are expected to feature and are expected to be consulted in the development of the musuem.

From my viewpoint, Hip Hop has long had a view on violence - whether it's denouncing it (as did Boogie Down Productions in the 80s) or supposedly glorifying it, so it will be hard to draw a line under which acts to include and which to exclude. KRS one would be a tricky choice, being that his earlier BDP records denounced violence, yet his later material no longer seems to take that standpoint.

Daniel O'Connell

Gigs

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