ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – The City of Atlanta is honoring hip-hop with celebrations throughout the month of August.
ATL 50 Hip-Hop is a series of events including academia talks and a blockbuster concert — all to mark the 50th anniversary since hip-hop was created. On Aug. 11, 1973, the popular genre was born in New York City.
ATL 50 Hip-Hop kicked off Monday with Spirit Week.
🏙️ What events are going on around Atlanta for the 50th anniversary of hip-hop? 🏙️
- Tuesday, Aug. 8 – ATL Dance Day
- Wednesday, Aug. 9 – Rep Your City Day
- Thursday, Aug. 10 – Dungeon Family Appreciation Day
- Thursday, Aug. 10 – Hip-Hop is Art: Presented by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. 5:30 p.m., Atlanta City Hall, 55 Trinity Ave SW, Atlanta, GA 30303
- Thursday, Aug. 10 – Movie Series: Hip-Hop 50th Edition – ATL, 7 p.m., 101 Auburn Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30303
- Friday, Aug. 11 – Hip-Hop Hop Day, with a Live Broadcast from City Hall with Ryan Cameron
- Saturday, Aug. 12 – ARTSCOOL Exhibition and Mural Unveiling, 5 p.m., 785 Echo St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
- Sunday, Aug. 13 – ATL Hip-Hop Hop 50 Concert: Yesterday, Today and (404)-Ever, featuring performances by Atlanta’s Hip-Hop hop icons T.I., Goodie Mob, EarthGang, Backbone, Crime Mob, Omeretta The Great, Scotty ATL, and special guest appearances.
For more events, click here.
🎚️ How important is Atlanta to hip-hop? 🎚️
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said the city’s role in the evolution of hip-hop has been “outsized and indisputable.”
“It’s only fitting the City of Atlanta joins our community in celebrating the industry and culture we helped shape and helped shape us,” Dickens said. “hip-hop goes beyond music — from fashion to art to building economic empires or political movements — it resonates beyond sound. We look forward to commemorating this milestone with the community.”
Since the early 1980s, Atlanta hip-hop has played an “integral role in the culture’s ascension,” writes Georgia Tech professor Dr. Joycelyn Wilson. Wilson writes that 1982 is significant to the early history of hip-hop in general but also specifically Atlanta rap music — serving as the genesis year for hip-hop in Georgia’s capital city.
Rapper Mojo and Velvetone Records released “Battmann: Let Mojo Handle It,” which Wilson writes is about the “burden carried by Atlanta’s youth throughout the end of the ‘sheltering in place’ order mandated by then-Mayor Maynard Jackson during the Atlanta Child Murders and its impact on the city.”
Since then, several hip-hop artists from Atlanta, including T.I., Outkast, and Ludacris, among several others, have made their way to the hip-hop scene.
In a 2009 article, the New York Times dubbed Atlanta “hip-hop’s center of gravity.”
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