Big Daddy Kane

Prominent New York City radio personality and producer DJ Mister Cee has died at the age of 57, his home station HOT 97 said Wednesday. 'As a family at HOT 97 and WBLS, we're deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved Mister Cee, he wasn't just a DJ; he was a pillar of our stations, bringing joy to countless listeners with his legendary Throwback at Noon and Friday Night Live sets,' the radio station said Wednesday.

Ice-T was already known as one of the earliest incarnations of hip-hop, which would be dubbed gangsta rap in the 1980s. Although the former New York gang member grew up on the East Coast, the burgeoning MC and dancer was introduced to Los Angeles gang life after his parents died and he went west to Los Angeles. It was those experiences out on the street that earned him his youthful apprehension that would help shape his image as a rapper of a more punching version of hip-hop in the mid to late 1980s, which later earned the gangster rap moniker. Ice-T (born Tracy Lauren Marrow, 65), who began Rhyme Pays (1987), has moved all of his musical talent to his heavy metal band Body Count, which has dropped seven studio albums, beginning with the controversial song Cop Killer in 1992. During an interview with Variety, the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit actor explained that he hadn't recorded a solo album since 2006, but that he didn't identify with the current day rappers and hip-hop.

Sacha Jenkins, a journalist and director who has devoted a large portion of his life to chronicling the art form, says, "Hip-hop is about people." Jenkins and co-curator Sally Berman opened the exhibition "Hip-Hop: Conscious, Unconscious" at the Swedish photography museum Fotografiska's Park Avenue outpost last week. If you first step into the exhibition, which runs in New York until May 21 before heading to Stockholm and Berlin, two rooms feature striking photographs of people who witnessed hip-hop's birth. Jenkins says that only a few of them have any notable brand recognition, proving a time when "hip-hop wasn't aware of itself." These images support that hip-hop was a direct creative extension of its first home in the Bronx, a far cry from the glitzier stylings to which many young fans may be familiar. A 1983 photo by Martha Cooper shows a crew of children carrying a piece of cardboard that they might use to break their fate, a photograph that sadly matches the Beatles' Abbey Road cover art. It brings you back to another time, a reminder that what has developed into one of the country's most popular cultural exports is not limited to a small group's lifestyle.