MoMA
Posts tagged ‘hip hop’
May 11, 2011  |  Collection & Exhibitions
Afrika Bambaataa: Saluting the King of Hip-Hop

Laura Levine. Afrika Bambaataa, NYC. 1983. Gelatin silver print. Image courtesy of the artist

With so much talk of royalty in the air, it’s fitting that this week we salute another monarch: Afrika Bambaataa, the king of electro funk and godfather of hip-hop. In Looking at Music: 3.0 we feature “Planet Rock,” the influential 80’s disco hit he made with the Soulsonic Force. Although Kool DJ Herc is credited with creating hip-hop’s signature sound, specifically the “break,” or extended instrumental beat, it was Afrika Bambaataa who pushed hip-hop into new territory as both a musical style and a cultural movement.

April 28, 2011  |  Artists, Collection & Exhibitions, Videos
Cey Adams: An Insider’s Look at Hip-hop Culture

We caught up with Cey Adams, founding creative director of Def Jam Recordings, in MoMA’s Looking at Music 3.0 exhibition gallery, and he talked to us about his work, the emergence of hip-hop, and his unwavering allegiance to the possibilities of culture.

March 17, 2011  |  Collection & Exhibitions
Looking at Hip-Hop 1.0

As a grizzled hip-hop vet, I can’t tell you how thrilling it is that curator Barbara London’s Looking at Music series has burned past the 1960s and ’70s to arrive, in its third iteration, in the 1980s and ’90s. Finally, it’s time for my peoples to shine!

February 24, 2011  |  Collection & Exhibitions
Riding the Trans-Europe Express
February 16, 2011  |  Collection & Exhibitions
Listening to Art

The Residents. Freak Show. 1995

The Residents. Freak Show. 1995. Interactive CD-ROM. The Museum of Modern Art Library. Image courtesy the artists

The idea of looking at music has percolated in my mind for decades. I followed how the violin prodigy Laurie Anderson successfully straddled the worlds of art and music. She cleverly harnessed media to merge visuals with lyrics. Her work unfolded in tandem with technology, as computers and software allowed her to move more fluidly between disciplines. Before long we all stopped seeing a distinction between art and music.