Welcome to the [R]Evolution of Hip Hop, an interactive journey through history using artifacts, multimedia, artificial intelligence, and virtual and augmented technologies.
Open Now Thru Dec 2021
The [R]Evolution Exhibit
The [R]Evolution of Hip Hop: An immersive journey through Hip Hop History is conceived by creative agents from multiple artistic backgrounds that employ archives and experimental storytelling techniques focusing on the five elements of Hip Hop – MCing, DJing, Breakdancing, Aerosol Art, Knowledge. The exhibit celebrates Hip Hop’s emergence from the park jams and the projects to night clubs, national concert tours, TV, and motion pictures circa 1980 to 1985. The innovative music, art, dance, and fashion that first permeated city streets in the Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn, and Queens in the 1970s made its way Downtown. Savvy club promoters and risk-taking entrepreneurs would fuel the commercialization of Hip Hop culture and would give rise to the first Rap record labels, Master-Mixes on Black radio and the first smash hits on the Billboard charts. This arts and cultural revolution would soon spread Hip Hop to the West Coast and to every corner of the world.
[R]Evolution of Hip Hop Breakbeat Narratives
The centerpiece installation – “[R]Evolution of Hip Hop Breakbeat Narratives,” featuring the Elementals character – is the museum’s first Artificial Intelligence project. The “Breakbeat Narratives” is a collaboration between the Universal Hip Hop Museum, Microsoft, and the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality, offering museum-goers the ability to take home a playlist of songs through a personalized narrative of Hip Hop history.
