Next week sees the official launch of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame's long-awaited hip-hop exhibit, "Roots, Rhymes & Rage: The Hip-Hop Story."
To celebrate, the Cleveland-based Rock Hall is throwing a gala affair on Wednesday, November 10, in honor of the launch. The event will feature performances by Public Enemy, Nas, Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh, Grandmaster Flash, Outkast, and Krayzie Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. "Roots, Rhymes & Rage" will be installed on three floors of the Rock Hall's museum and will be organized into five sections: "The Block Party," "The Roots," "The Golden Era," "Controversy, Outrage & The Rise Of Gangsta Rap," and "Pop Goes The Culture." The show begins with a look at four primary elements of hip-hop: DJing, MCing, graffiti writing, and dancing, and it ends with an examination of the genre's current pop and mainstream success. The exhibit will open to the public on November 11 and is scheduled to remain up through August 2000. Some of the artifacts gathered for the exhibit include a hat, sunglasses, and Adidas sneakers donated by Run-DMC; the Beastie Boys' outfits worn in the video for "Intergalactic;" a jacket worn in the video for Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It;" the Grammy Award statuette presented to Will Smith for "Parents Just Don't Understand" by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (the first Grammy Award presented in a rap category); and a letter, dated August 1, 1989, from the FBI to Priority Records expressing the organization's concerns about the group NWA. Various other items represent artists such as Ice-T, The Notorious B.I.G., Public Enemy, Tupac Shakur, Arrested Development, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Mase, and Missy Elliott. Back in September, the Rock Hall, in conjunction with Cleveland State University's Black Studies Program and Levi's, set the stage for the hip-hop exhibit with a three-day conference called "Hip-Hop: A Cultural Expression" which featured keynote addresses by KRS-One and Chuck D as well as appearances, lectures, and symposia by Prince Paul, Kool G Rap, Biz Markie, and others (see "KRS-One, Chuck D, Big Daddy Kane To Appear At Hip-Hop Conference").-- John Gill
