Black History

Hip-Hop Museum Preserves Rap Music History in D.C.

THE AFRO — Forty years ago the music world was caught off guard by a genre’ that would change the industry forever.

Published

7 years ago

January 13, 2019

By Mark F. Gray

Forty years ago, near the end of the Jimmy Carter administration, when the Baltimore Orioles were making a run to the World Series, the music world was caught off guard by a genre’ that would change the industry forever. When the Sugar Hill Gang sampled a hook from Chic’s disco hit Good Times and created lyrics that flowed over the beats to create the iconic hit single Rappers Delight, Hip-Hop music was born.

Jeremy Beaver, owner of Listen Vision Studios in Northwest D.C., has been captivated his entire life by the evolution of what was initially known as rap music. His passion for the music and its cultural impact led to opening a studio across the street from Howard University’s business school on Georgia Ave. Northwest, in a three story brownstone providing artists with a place to record and produce music giving them a chance to break into the business.

Beaver has moved his “Vision” to the next level by creating the Hip-Hop Museum Pop Up Experience which debuts Jan. 18 and runs through Feb. 18 at the Culture House in Southwest, D.C. The interactive experience is expected to give fans an opportunity to understand how the music of urban culture has impacted the world.

“Hip-Hop has moved from the streets of the Bronx in the 1970s to every household in the world 40 years later, and that’s a fascinating phenomenon,” said Beaver. “By creating the Hip-Hop Museum D.C. collection, we hope to contribute to the preservation of Hip-Hop history and culture.”

The month long celebration of Hip-Hop begins with live performances by the Sugarhill Gang, Melle Mel, and Grandmaster Caz, accompanied by D.C.’s legendary go-go band Trouble Funk, who were all signed to Sugarhill Records in the early 1980s. Beaver says this performance will correct a 40-year oversight in Hip-Hop history.

Sugarhill Gang member Big Bank Hank (who died in 2014) used Caz’s lyrics on “Rapper’s Delight,” but Caz was never acknowledged nor paid. When the song was released Caz was the lead member of the Cold Crush Brothers and considered one of the then-underground genre’s most talented lyricists. The debate over rapper’s using “ghostwriters” continues in recent battles between Drake and Meek Mill and Nicki Minaj and Cardi B.

“Caz was one of the original combination of rappers and DJs who was an inspiration to the artists who followed him,” Beaver said. “He’s never gotten credit for the most significant breakthrough commercially successful record to hit billboard’s top 100.”

Opening night also features a live streaming talk show hosted by D.C. native and founder of Source Magazine and the Source Music Awards Dave Mays. Source magazine has long been considered the industry standard publication for Hip-Hop culture. Mays is scheduled to interview the performers and selected guests about the significance of Rapper’s Delight and how it changed the landscape of the music industry 40 years ago.

“It’s important that we recognize and learn more about Hip-Hop’s rich history at a time when the genre has become not only the most popular music on the planet, but a multi-billion dollar global cultural and entertainment force,” said Mays.

Beaver has more than 500 vintage items that comprise the exhibit. The artifacts include boxing gloves from the music video “Mama Said Knock You Out” signed by LL Cool J, a brick from Eminem’s childhood home on 8 Mile Road in Michigan, the leather vest worn by Grandmaster Caz in the classic 1982 Hip-Hop film Wild Style, and what Beaver claims is the world’s largest collection of Hip-Hop sneakers and autographed vinyl record albums and singles.

This article originally appeared in The Afro.

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COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

12 hours ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.