Are shows such as this one a dream given the amount of pre-existing public interest?
Absolutely, whenever there’s a unifying force like hip-hop culture that speaks to a universal audience, it’s a dream come true. But it also comes with a big responsibility to tell the right story and celebrate the complexity of the culture. Visitors see the story unfold from a voice of a community to a voice for the world.
As a journalist what stories do you hope visitors take away from the exhibition?
I wanted to tease out these deeper layers, the spaces where hip-hop was born and took place and took shape. Ancillary characters, as well as neighbourhoods — whether it’s Nas in Queensbridge, A$AP Rocky in Harlem or Kendrick Lamar at Tam’s Burgers in Compton — are as important as the artists themselves. I also hope visitors will reflect on the amazing documentarians who pointed their cameras at hip-hop when it was still a subculture. I want to highlight the photographers, who, like their muses in many cases, were young, black and unknown when they captured the historic images.