News about Marley Marl

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.