Hip-Hop respecognized at Smithsonian

Grandmaster Flash, the Furious 5, LL Cool J, Common, Erykah Badu and other artists will be featured in a new exhibit showing at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. Titled Recognize! Hip-Hop and Contemporary Portraiture, the exhibit is the first to examine hip-hop's influence on American culture.

According to AllHipHop.com, Recognize! will use photographs by David Scheinbaum, paintings by Kehinde Wiley and videos by Jefferson Pinder, among other works like graffiti, poetry and spoken word pieces commissioned specifically for the show, to express the impact hip-hop has had on self-expression and portrayal.

The exhibition will begin February 8 and run through October 26 at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.

Explaining the show's vision, the Gallery director Marc Pachter says, "Recognize! Hip-Hop and Contemporary Portraiture shows that much of the art inspired by the hip-hop movement is a form of portrayal. Music, photography, painting, poetry and even graffiti provide a medium for self-expression and establishing identity."