AGO opens first international Hip Hop exhibit, but faces questions on overlooking Toronto’s role

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) is hosting its first international Hip Hop exhibit, but some Toronto scholars are skeptical about its inclusivity.

On Dec. 4, the AGO opened “The Culture,” named after the well-known Hip Hop phrase “for the culture,” which highlights international musicians, designers, graffiti artists, and streetwear fashion to showcase Hip Hop’s impact on the world. 

The exhibit was co-curated by a team of four women, three of whom are women of colour – Asma Naeem, the BMA’s Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director; Gamynne Guillotte, the BMA’s Chief Education Officer; Hannah Klemm, SLAM’s Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art; and Andréa Purnell, SLAM’s Audience Development Manager. The AGO presentation is organized by Dr. Julie Crooks, Curator, Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora, AGO.

According to the AGO, the exhibit features one original photograph of the CN Tower by Caitlin Cronenberg that was used for Drake’s album Views (2016), a video installation of hair braiding in Ghana, a documentary inspired by Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City album, 90’s streetwear brand Too Black Guys, a selection of Lil Kim’s wig collection, and artwork by Nina Chanel Abney for Meek Mill’s Expensive Pain.

SLAM’s Audience Development Manager Andréa Purnell told Now Toronto the exhibit has travelled all around the world and has been adjusted city by city since the first exhibits launched in the U.S.

“It’s not a full survey of Hip Hop, even the one in Saint Louis. Every photo didn’t include every Hip Hop person in Saint Louis. It was a snapshot. It was a moment in time,” Purnell said.

However, Purnell noted during the panel discussion moderated by Master T at the opening exhibit on Wednesday, that she worked with a global advisory committee of designers, artists, and “Hip Hop heads,” including renowned producer and professor Wendel Patrick from the Peabody Institute. 

When Dr. Julie Crooks, curator of Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora at the AGO, was presented with the opportunity to highlight the intersection of contemporary art and Hip Hop, she was both elated and felt the pressure of such a high cultural responsibility in a city with a rich Hip Hop community.

“It was about a kind of circumstance and trying to move ahead as quickly as possible. And frankly, I don’t think we needed an advisory committee at the level, because all of that work had been done. It was really about how we were going to situate Toronto in the show, and especially through contemporary art. Because, again, this is not an archival show that is, you know, showing the documented history of Hip Hop in Toronto or nationally,” Crooks said.

“[However] having a large-scale Hip Hop exhibit at the AGO for the first time like this still underscores Toronto’s role in shaping Hip Hop at a global level, and everyday Torontonians can use this opportunity to recognize the city’s contributions to the culture,” according to Mary Fogarty, who’s an associate professor of Dance at York University, Hip Hop researcher, and member of the Toronto B-Girl movement.

“The AGO, known for its long-standing support of Hip Hop through curatorial work, as well as through providing space for local Hip Hop practitioners to do what they love most – practice –, is the perfect venue for this celebration,” Fogarty said. 

Both Crooks and Purnell said the exhibit is a chance to both celebrate and critique the current development of Hip Hop as a whole, rather than throwing in every detail and figure involved in Canadian history. 

“Just think about the contemporary artists that you’re seeing who are referencing Hip Hop, right? So, that’s the starting point, right? This is the beginning of other exhibitions, and it doesn’t have to be at the AGO. There’s so many other galleries, small spaces. It’s not the be all and end all to have a show at the AGO and I work here. It is about the stories that you want to tell and the communities that you want to engage with,” Crooks said.

CURIOSITY ABOUT TORONTO’S ROLE IN NEW EXHIBIT

Some Hip Hop experts in the city have not seen the new exhibit yet, but are skeptical about the inclusion of Toronto’s worldwide influence on the genre.

“It really depends on how early on Toronto was considered in the process of importing this exhibition from Baltimore. If it was an after thought, then we’ll see small traces of Toronto, maybe a couple photos,” Mark Campbell told Now Toronto, who’s the associate professor of University of Toronto Scarborough’s Music and Culture program, Ontario arts grant juror, and founder of Northside Hip Hop Archive.

“If the AGO thought seriously about their mandate to service Ontario, then we might see works from Ottawa’s ’83 Til Infinity Show that went up in 2023, graffiti from artists connected to Ottawa’s House of PainT festival or items from Hamilton’s very significant graffiti histories, starting with Ontario’s first graffiti festival, Concrete Canvas,” Campbell said. 

Campbell says in order for the exhibit to authentically showcase Toronto to an international audience, the main focus would have to not privilege American Hip Hop over the Ontario or Canadian scene.

“I am not quite sure the AGO can engage an international audience and promote Toronto’s artists. One can see at the Olympics we represented in breaking, and we can go back to DJ Dopey’s World DMC title in 2003 to see Toronto on the world stage reppin’, but I am unsure if these non-visual parts of Hip Hop culture will make it into the AGO’s more visual arts focus,” Campbell said. 

According to Campbell, Torontonians also don’t realize how pivotal they were in the success of America’s earliest Hip Hop acts, such as Ice Cube, KRS-1, Rakim, LL Cool J, Biz Markie, and Queen Latifah in the 1980s.

Crooks and Campbell were previous side-by-side teaching assistants, and Crooks has known Hip Hop expert Dalton Higgins for years.

Higgins is Kardinal Offishall’s public relations manager, CBC’s Hip Hop Summit content manager, six-book Hip Hop author and university lecturer on the impact of Drake and The Weeknd. After learning about the exhibit, he says he was confused why he wasn’t consulted for it.

“I don’t know anything about this exhibit, which is a bit weird, given what I’ve been doing for the last 30 years in Canadian Hip Hop… I am the only Canadian journalist to have worked for the biggest U.S. Hip Hop media outlet in the world…who is programming this thing? Out-of-touch AGO staffers? I know for a fact that the Indigenous community has banned the AGO because of their treatment of the Indigenous staffers, who left in recent months, but I don’t know what else is happening down there to be honest,” Higgins told Now Toronto. 

The exhibit closes with a large black and white photo snapped by Toronto photographer Patrick Nichols last August, featuring Master T and few other notable musicians, but excludes Kardinal Offishal. 

“Kardi would have been in that Hip hop history photo Toronto, but I know he wasn’t available that time and it’s kind of hard because I heard talk about photoshopping him in and that’s not really gonna work. He wasn’t there. But, he’s obviously not forgotten,” Master T told Now Toronto.

Purnell mentioned in the panel discussion that the exhibit was originally going to be named “All Eyez on Me,” after the late rapper Tupac Shakur, who had one of his last interviews with Master T before he passed. 

As for the future of engaging with Hip Hop in Toronto, Master T is excited about what’s available to the youth in terms of recording, producing, distributing, and marketing.

“Back in the days, a lot of Hip Hop artists had to pool their funds to pay for studio time. You know, where a lot of these guys now can just say, ‘Oh, bring me a sandwich. I’m just recording something right now,’ and they’re in their basement being creative. So, you know, it’s a different time. But I think the energy of creativity is still there in terms of what they have and the ability to access everything,” Master T said. 

Editor’s Note: Some of the names and titles of those involved with the exhibit were incorrect but have since been corrected.

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