Reese also points out that the legalities of collecting items like mixtapes and TikToks are tough, especially for institutions like the Smithsonian Institution. You have to go through due diligence, licensing, and all sorts of other formalities. However, she stresses that the museum is trying to digitize its archives as much as possible. “We catalog it, research it, preserve it, and once it’s all done, we digitize it and make it accessible,” she says.
Some of these efforts are already bearing fruit. As I was about to end the call, Reese told me where to go next. Smithsonian Anthology of Hip Hop and Rap, a collection of 129 songs and a 300-page book released in 2021. This is a collaboration between writers, B-boys, graffiti artists, academics, and community members, and is “not the definitive story of hip hop,” she points out. [it is] A story about hip hop. ” The entire movement is too large to fit into any one collection, but this collection shows its cultural, political and historical significance, Rees said.
in everything This debate about how to archive hip-hop history brings up the larger question of where those collections should reside.
Almost everyone I spoke to for this article talked about the importance of preserving your stash of CDs, tapes, party flyers, MP3s, etc. as digital archives disappear. But what about physical things? Many of Cornell University's archives and similar archives at Harvard University are open to the public, but reservations are often required to view them. (However, much of Cornell's stuff has been digitized.) Some of the Smithsonian's collections are on display, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture is free.
However, many of the physical artifacts of hip-hop history are in private collections. DJ Kool Herc, who last year celebrated the birth of hip-hop with a Bronx block party, has auctioned off much of his equipment through Christie's. Radio Raheem's boombox, which is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, once belonged to Gene Siskel. It was given to him by Spike Lee himself. After his death in 1999, the museum acquired it at auction. The Smithsonian obtains much of its archives through donations, and plans to acquire items this way when possible. Kool Herc's auction was “competitive,” Reese said, but the organization did acquire several items.
Spaces like the Universal Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx show the potential to become accessible spaces for the community. But museum exhibits and academic archives are fraught with questions. Jenkins compares it to the African art that has become part of the collections of American museums. “Guys, did you get this as a gift? Or did you take it? Who wrote the placard? Where is it in the museum?” he says. “All of those things have an immeasurable influence on us. It's crazy because hip-hop is often challenging the same institutions and individuals and ideas.”
Aku points out that putting hip-hop behind glass risks turning something evolving and interactive into a one-way conversation. “I think sometimes the fact that academia is a repository for so many different things creates invisible gates,” he added. This is in contrast to a culture that started with block parties that were open to everyone.
