Provided to the QAM News
This year marks the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, and MoPOP is celebrating the world’s most popular music genre in style.
Visit the wildly popular gallery Contact High, featuring hip-hop photography of many legends and icons; My Mic Sounds Nice, Associate Curator Adeerya Johnson’s pop-up profile of the women at the heart of hip-hop’s success; the new Online Hip-Hop Collection Vault, putting music, fashion, politics, and dance right at your fingertips; and multiple live, in-person events through November.
Friends of the Waterfront celebration
When: Saturday, Aug. 12, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Where: Pier 62
Join MoPOP and Friends of Waterfront Seattle for Hip-Hop 50, a celebration of five decades of hip-hop highlighting Seattle’s contributions to the culture.
Featuring B-boy and B-girl dance battles; a fashion show with performances by Kutt n Up; a legends cypher; and a music tribute featuring Vitamin D and Roc Phizzle.
Attendees can receive 50% tickets to MoPOP from Aug. 12 to Aug 20. Visit the MoPOP booth for details.
Currently on view
Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop
They say a picture’s worth 1,000 words, and that’s especially true of one of music’s most language-conscious genres: hip-hop.
Contact High explores four decades of photography, from the late 1970s to today, documenting a revolution not just in music, but in politics, race relations, fashion, and culture. Through more than 170 iconic images of hip-hop's most influential artists (Missy Elliott, Jay-Z, Queen Latifah, Tupac, and more) — including contact sheets that give us a rare glimpse into the creative process of a photo session — Contact High examines the evolution of hip-hop, connecting us with the experiences, identities, and places that have shaped the world’s most popular music genre.