For this year’s Black Music Month program, the National Black Arts Festival is hosting a block party style, multi-sensory event which is an ode to “Rapper’s Delight: 50 Years of Hip Hop” on Saturday, June 10.
The immersive event takes place at the newly established Westside Paper retail space in Atlanta, and highlights the legacy of Hip Hop, having transformed over 50 years from a music genre into a Black cultural movement through technology, art and business entities.
The genre will be explored through an all-encompassing surround sound experience, interactive exhibitions that explore its history, video installations and a Bodega Indie Market for Black-owned businesses. Attendees can immerse themselves in five silent disco parties that feature a decade of Hip Hop, respectively. To accompany this experience, live sets will feature DJ Scratch, Empress Rah and Jelly on the ones and twos. Attendees can also take advantage of social photo booths.
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Ahead of the main event, NBAF will host a VIP Mixer and Honors Ceremony. The exclusive affair will spotlight trailblazers who helped establish Atlanta as the Hip Hop capital of the South.
Honorees include Big Oomp Records’ Big Oomp, DJ Jelly, MC Assault and DJ Montay, pioneers who helped create Atlanta’s first independent label and Emmy-award winning radio personality Ryan Cameron.
The Rappers Delight: 50 Years of Hip Hop block party is open and free to the public. The event runs from 8pm to midnight. Tickets for the celebration can be found on The National Black Arts Festival’s Black Music Month page.
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