#hip-hop-history

#hip-hop-history

In celebration of Black History Month, a photo installation at Brooklyn Borough Hall is putting "Brooklyn's Finest: Legends in Focus" in the spotlight, paying homage to Brooklyn's hip-hop history and the photographers who chronicled the evolution of the borough's hip-hop culture and the arts during the genre's most pivotal years. Images include the historic 1998 "Greatest Day in Hip-Hop History" photo by Gordon Parks, featuring influential rappers, DJs, producers and artists gathered on a Harlem brownstone stoop;

Since the creation of hip-hop in the '70s, the genre has developed regionally. The SF Bay Area scene refined that regionalism to an impressive degree, and no group embodies the Bay's own thing more than RBL Posse. Founded in 1991 in SF's Hunter's Point, the group reached instant success with the self-produced "Don't Give Me No Bammer Weed." Though RBL Posse followed up with further successful records, tragedy followed as well.

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's rise from Cleveland hopefuls to hip-hop legends is a story inseparable from the legacy of Eazy-E. The late N.W.A icon not only signed the group to his Ruthless Records label but also helped shape the trajectory of their career at a moment when they were still unknowns. Thirty years after his passing, Bone Thugs continue to honor the man who gave them their shot.

It's because of these connections, as well as the wide-reaching influence of Native Tongues - a bunch of MCs who made it acceptable to be heady and overly lyrical - that Sunday's event is significant, with its onstage visuals, stories and music.