As hip-hop's 50th anniversary year of 2023 draws near, legendary rapper Nas wants to make sure the world understands its history, relevance and influence.
NAS: "I mean, hip-hop was never just music. It was always the, the elements of deejaying from deejaying to dancing, to dancing to graffiti art... different fashion. There's so many different things with hip-hop..."
Through his company, Mass Appeal, the native New Yorker is helping to spearhead numerous events to celebrate an artform that changed the face of pop culture...
from original music, live events, documentaries, and digital content - all accompanied by charitable elements.
As part of the efforts, the hashtag #HipHop50 was created as a way to mark the milestone on social media.
In conjunction with Showtime, documentary films on the culture of the music genre are being produced, along with a 10-part EP soundtrack produced by Swizz Beatz, The-Dream, Hit-Boy and others.
Mass Appeal CEO Peter Bittenbender:
"...We wanted to create something that was kind of stop, stop the world and make people recognize how impactful this world - this culture has been. Not just in America, but globally."
The genre, born in the 1970s in the south Bronx, is what electrified Nas as a child, and what he says ultimately helped save his life:
NAS: "All over the world, different languages. Everywhere there's hip-hop artists. We connect. It's a family. And I think that, you know, that's what makes it so great is that everybody is welcome."
And when asked where he thinks Hip-Hop is going in the next 50 years, Nas said he hoped it would continue its transformative ways.
NAS: "I hope that it's still thriving and staying innovative, and people are in control of their destinies and people are united through Hip-Hop and awaken about the things that are wrong in our societies through the words of hip-hop."
Nas's company Mass Appeal marks the official date of hip hop's anniversary as August 11, 2023.
