Hip Hop's Influence in Contemporary Art

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Savannah College of Art and Design

Carmen Russell

ARTH 701

Professor Anne Swartz

November 12, 2017

Hip-Hop is a genre of music that has profoundly influenced culture, politics, artists, and art. Today, Hip-Hop is a strong and growing component in contemporary art. Many artists are using art and Hip Hop music to create and express innovative ideas and messages. I will explore the relationship between Hip-Hop music and contemporary art, to convey the profound influence Hip-Hop has in contemporary art.

Hip Hop was born 1970s, in Bronx, New York. This was a time when African Americans were being forced to live in "urban" impoverished communities, drugs were an epidemic specifically targeting African Americans, and racial prejudices were still strongly prevalent. It was during this time, when New York had become the unwilling symbol of modern urban dystopia when a national audience watched the borough smoldering in the background of the 1977 World Series. The Bronx was burning, but it was also creating a cultural movement- Hip Hop- that was about to set the world on fire [1]. Hip Hop is a genre of music that has attitude. It's rebellious, loud, and angry; Anger at being poor, black, disenfranchised, abused, stereotyped, blamed, mistreated, ignored.

Hip-hop music has been built on the rejection of middle-class values; the refusal to be incorporated into larger white society; and an insistent allegiance to the rules of “the streets" [2]. Although Hip Hops origins are rooted in the unrest of urban communities, and its original purpose served African Americans fed up with an unfair system and looking for an outlet to expose these abuses, Hip Hop today is a voice that represents the raw truth of every human from every community. Out of the birth of Hip Hop, came spoken word poetry re-mixes of music, rapping, break dancing, "Urban style" fashion in clothing and shoes, gaudy jewelry, and the emergence of art in the form of graffiti.

Hip Hop continued to rapidly evolve and transform through the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Artist such as Fred Brathwaite and Zephyr used their creative skills in graffiti art to globally introduce the union of Hip-Hop and Art.

Brathwaite, also known as Fab 5 Freddy, was a popular up and coming graffiti artist as well as Hip-Hop music, and film artist. In his painting of Campbell's soup, he was establishing a space wherein Hip-Hop could be seen and heard. He was forcing the world to acknowledge the underrepresented African American communities, their hardships, and their many artistic talents. In replicating his own version of Andy Warhol's famous Campbell Soup pop art painting, Brathwaite bridged a union between Hip Hop and Art; he unearthed a rich culture that society had dismissed (in African American communities). Much like Warhol's pop art created a presence of its own in pop music, Hip-Hop was learning it's parameters as well as being defined. Wild Style was the theatrical release to introduce graffiti art into the realm of film; again, propelling Hip-Hop

into spaces it hadn't yet been to be seen and heard by audiences around the world.

Freddy had bridged New York City’s Hip-Hop and Art worlds, bringing in outsiders like Afrika Bambaataa, Futura, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, who injected new energy into the cloistereddowntown art scene [3]. The result was an explosion of attentive audiences, eager to hear whatHip-Hop and Art had to say. Out of this union, artists like Basquiat, Bambaataa, Madonna, andFred became famous. Fred is an important link to successful cross pollination Hip-Hop and Arthas created for current artist like Jay-Z, Nikki Minaj, Rhianna, 50 Cent, Rick Ross, Kanye West, and many others. And some of these current artist as well as their controversial lyrics, are the life support to Hip-Hop's influence on artist such as Oliver Laric and Hank Willis Thomas whom I will discuss in detail later.

Following Basquiat's death, the strong bond between Hip-Hop and Art began to fade into the background. It wasn't until the mid 2000s when Rapper, Jay-Z, had taken a private tour of one ofJean-Michel Basquiat's exhibits and developed a strong connection to Basquiat's work as well as similarities in their upbringing. Jay-Z, already an infamous and idolized rapper who is known for taking risks, and crossing pollinating music genre's (such as his collaboration and performance with alternative rock band Linkin Park) began name dropping Basquiat into his songs. This opened a flood gate for many other artists to explore the relationship between their music and art.

Jay-Z made references to art in Hip-Hop music cool; it became more mainstream. Once the "King" of rap drops a famous African American artist's name, everyone else follow suit. As Basquiat's pieces were intended to shed light on poverty, the dichotomies of integration versus segregation, inner versus outer experiences, and systems of racism, Jay-Z's lyrics express and at times may expound upon these similar messages. In his Lyrics: "Illest Mother Alive", Jay-Z raps: "When I say it then you see, it ain't only in the music Basquiats, Warhols serving as my muses. My house like a museum so I see 'em when I'm peeing, usually you have this much taste you European, that's the end of that way of thinking, nigga never again.", and "Picasso Baby", "It aint hard to tell I'm the new Jean-Michel surrounded by Warhols my whole team ball...Yellow Basquiat in my kitchen corner, go ahead lean on that shit Blue, you own it...don't forget America this how you made me. Come through with ya mask on, spray everything like SAMO through I won't scratch the Lambo. What's it gonna take for me to go for y'all to see I'm the modern day

Pablo Picasso baby."

While Basquiat painted the racial prejudices and impoverished world of his community, Jay-Z as well as other artists choose to make themselves the face of the racially profiled community. They are the rejected 'protagonist' that white society does not accept. Hip-Hop allows for Jay-Z to have no boundaries when it comes to how shocking, and intrusive he wants his lyrical message to be. I find that Basquiat's paintings also depict a shockingly harsh, dark, loud, and rebellious message to them. The dripping lines, vibrant and contrasting colors, thin lines versus blocks of shapes all create an uncomfortable discord. Nothing in Basquiat's paintings convey a melodic and tranquil tone; much like Hip-Hop's message and style. Since the mid 2000s to present, Hip-Hop has 'popularized' traditional, modern art; and to some degree, artist within the art world. Tierney Sneed provides a unique perspective on Jay-Z's relationship to Basquiat. She believes

that "the parallels between the artist's and musician's careers suggest that Jay-Z is not so much the new Basquiat, but a continuation of the struggles the painter faced had he been allowed to mature. Basquiat was just beginning to grapple with the contradictions of success and his humble, urban beginnings, a contradiction that has defined much of Jay-Z's career. This juxtaposition is also a dominant theme for much of "Magna Carta Holy Grail." Simply put: Jay-Z is Basquiat grown old" [4].

Curator Franklin Sirmans takes note of how artist like Jay-Z and Kanye West have revived, if not elevated the careers of renowned artist like Marina Abramovic , stating that Jay-Z and Kanye "put them over the plateau with an emergence of greater celebrity status than they have seen in their long careers" [5]. This is a strong statement considering Maria's creative origins and work as not only a Performance Artist, and her contributions to art, but she is considered the "mother" of Performance Art-one of the original pioneers. Sirman's statement further illustrates the powerful influence Hip-Hop possesses to infuse and transform art as well as the status of the artist.

With the re-unification of Hip-Hop and Art, as well as the emergence of online media, artists continue to expand the boundaries of Hip-Hop and contemporary art. Oliver Laric is a thirty-year old artist born in Innsbruck Austria. He uses a variety of resources and material to create videos, installations and sculptures. Laric explores historic and contemporary images through the various processes of bootleg, copies, and remixes. He examines and explores the process of authentic art versus inauthentic. "Straddling the liminal spaces between the past and the present, the authentic and the inauthentic, the original and its subsequent reflections and reconfigurations, Laric’s work collapses categories and blurs boundaries in a manner that calls into question their very

existence." [5].

In 2007, Laric explored these concepts by creating a video that had random teenagers and young adults singing to a mixed compilation of Rapper, 50 Cent's, songs. Laric not only explores his own aforementioned artist interests, but he exemplifies how Hip-Hop has become a prevalent subculture (becoming the dominant culture) not only to its audience, but in the art that it creates. Laric's 2-minute video beautifully displays how Hip-Hop influences art to create new pathways in Contemporary Art. Homemade videos uploaded to Youtube, the audience's relationship and expressions to music, and the repetition of lyrics all illustrate expressions of Contemporary Art that generations both young and old are fascinated- if not obsessed- with learning. Hip-Hop created a stronger and newer platform for Contemporary Artist; especially young, up and coming artist.

While Sirmans believes that this recent emergence is being "buried in a smoke of global popular culture." [6]. I find that it is redefining and creating deeper roots wherein people of all nationalities can express social injustices and important messages beyond urban communities as well as unite to understand and help each other. Much like Hip-Hop and Contemporary Art originate from the same root and stand to help each other.

Bibliography

Chang, Jeff. "From Basquiat to Jay-Z: how the art world came to fully embrace hip-hop." The Guardian. January 15, 2015. Accessed November 12, 2017.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/jan/15/history-art-hip-hop-art-basel-miami-beach-kanye-jayz-basquiat.

Gartenfeld, Alex. "Oliver Laric." Interview. November 29, 2011. Accessed November 12, 2017. https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/berlin-oliver-laric.

Gauteron, Eden. "The Emergence of Hip Hop." The Paley Center for Media. 1995-2017. Accessed November 12, 2017. https://www.paleycenter.org/the-emergence-of-hip-hop/.

Laric, Oliver. "Oliver Laric, 50 50." Vimeo. 2007. Accessed November 12, 2017.

https://vimeo.com/16024741.

London, Barbara. "Cey Adams: An Inside Look at Hip-Hop Culture." Inside/Out. April 28, 2011.Accessed November 12, 2017. https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2011/04/28/cey-adams-aninsiders-

look-at-hip-hop-culture/.

"Jean-Michel Basquiat." Jean-Michel Basquiat. 2016. Accessed November 12, 2017.

http://basquiat.com/artist.htm.

"Looking At Music 3.0." MoMA. February 16, 2011. Accessed November 12, 2017.

https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1133?locale=en.

Sneed, Tierney. "Why Jay-Z Keeps Reference Jean-Michel Basquiat: it's more than just bragging about expensive art." US News. July 5, 2013. Accessed November 12, 2017.

https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/07/05/why-jay-z-keeps-referencing-jean-michel-basquiat-inmagna-

carta-holy-grail.