Tag: hip-hop

The installations at the Museum of Design Atlanta’s new exhibition, Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture, include experimental visualizations, development proposals, facade studies, and building designs. Each riffs off of hip-hop’s methodologies—deejaying, emceeing, b-boy dancing, graffiti, remixing, sampling—to translate hip-hop’s energy into built form.

Takeoff, the Grammy-nominated rapper who made up one-third of Atlanta superstar group Migos, was killed early Tuesday morning at a bowling alley in Houston, Texas. A celebration of life will be held at State Farm Arena at noon on November 11 at State Farm Arena.

Publicly, Lil Baby has always been a man of few words. So it’s not at all surprising that the premiere screening of a documentary about the Atlanta rapper's life didn’t involve a grand speech. In fact, Lil Baby didn’t even offer a greeting or a goodbye on the microphone during the August 25 event. His gratitude was instead shown by the fact that he rented out the entire Regal movie theater at Atlantic Station and provided free refreshments throughout the night.

Before Vincent “Pudgy” Richardson and brothers Kevin and Travis Denson helped turn Bankhead into a hip-hop landmark, they sold CDs and white tees out of a bread truck outfitted with 15-inch rims. How they got the bread truck, or why they chose that specific mode of transportation, only Kevin knows. But this mobile operation—the humble beginnings of Toe Jam Music—made a lot of business sense in spring 1998.

When Brian “Bwrightous” Wright enrolled at Morehouse College in 2008, his goal was to get his apparel, Kreemo Clothing, into the hands of every rapper that visited the Atlanta University Center. The entrepreneur born and raised between Brooklyn and Queens, N.Y. connected with his classmate, Desmond “Dez” Attmore, who also grew up between the same two boroughs, in the hallway of their freshman dorm and envisioned a plan that would allow them to be creative nonstop and work closely with some of the most successful artists in hip-hop.

Lil Nas X, the rapper whose single “Industry Baby” is currently the No. 1 song in the country, walked into the event space at The Gathering Spot and immediately began dancing.

Today, the genre is seeing a new wave of women rise to the top—and Atlanta is the epicenter. In the last two years, most of the women who have been included on the coveted XXL Freshman list have either been from Atlanta or have called it home at some point, including Latto, Flo Milli, Rubi Rose, and Lakeyah. Even artists who aren’t from the South, such as Nicki Minaj, Saweetie, and Cardi B, are making hits here.

Yung Baby Tate realized she’d entered a new phase in her career—and her life—one afternoon in July as she was stepping off the elevator in her Atlanta apartment building. “Have a good night,” she said to the guy she’d shared the elevator with—a total stranger. “All right,” the guy replied. “See you on Love & Hip Hop.”

Two decades after Andre 3000 declared that the South had something to say, a new generation is taking the mic. Meet 7 Atlantans who are driving the conversation.

For a playlist featuring the best hits coming out of the city today (plus a few irresistible throw- backs), we knew exactly where to turn.