AROUNDTHE. MALL SCENES
IND SIGHTINGS
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THE SMITHSONIAN MUSEUMS AND BETOND
$ HIP.HIIP ALREADY HISTI|RY? YO! A VINTAGE TURNTABLE IS ONE THING. BUT A NEW SMITHSONIAN HISTORY INITIATIVE TO COLLECT HIP-HOP ARTIFACTS RAISES AUESTIONS ABOUT THE REBEL N4USIC'S CRUDE, EVEN VIOLENT SIDE HETHER THE sMrrHsoNrAN wrr,l get jigg,ris an open question, but the Institution has launched a new initiative to research hip-hop, the once outlaw street music that over three decades has grown into the driving force behind a multi-billion-do1lar entertainment and fashion industry The National Museum ofAmerican History announced the aftrfact-collecting effort at aFebruary event in New York City attended by such luminaries as recording impre-
sario Russell Simmons, rapper Ice-t break dancer Crary Legs and hip-hop founders Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc
and Grandmaster Flash. Among the first donated items were a vintage boombox from Fab 5 Freddy (host of the bygone "Yo! MTV Raps'), a turntable from Flash and two graffitied jackets from Bambaataa.
The announcement has prompted jokes
-
the satirical
newspap er The Onionwondered if the museum's exhibit
will include a "nine-room wing displaying bullets removed MAr zoo6
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