HIP-HOP AT 50: SME PUTS THE NEEDLE TO THE RECORD

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, Sony Music Entertainment and Certified, SME’s hip-hop/R&B catalog arm, will unveil more than 50 product releases. Their various configurations will be disseminated by Legacy Recordings, Vinyl Me, Please, Get On Down, Mobile Fidelity, Urban Outfitters and Target.

First-time digital releases and limited-edition vinyl from Big Pun, Cypress Hill, Nas, Outkast, Q-Tip, Run-DMC, Three 6 Mafia and Wu-Tang Clan represent just a slice of what’s to come.

The inaugural offering will be Nas’ Made You Look: God’s Son Live 2002, which captures the artist's 12/17 show at Webster Hall that year. It will be issued to coincide with Record Store Day, 4/22. (Nas’ The Lost Tapes will also get a vinyl update, available here on 5/26).

Run-DMC’s 1988 classic, Tougher Than Leather, will follow, arriving on vinyl via Legacy on 5/12, just before its 35th anniversary. The same day, Get On Down will put out a blue vinyl version to be featured in Vinyl Me, Please’s hip-hop subscription later this year. Click here for more information. Coming this summer and fall from Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, meanwhile, will be audiophile-grade, 180g SuperVinyl LP versions of Run-DMC’s self-titled debut (1984), King of Rock (1985) and Raising Hell (1986). Pre-orders are available here.

On 7/28, Certified will release Raised by Rap: 50 Years of Hip Hop. Boasting material by 21 Savage, A Tribe Called Quest, Doja Cat, Fugees, Future and Mobb Deep, among others, the project will be available from Urban Outfitters and Target as a double vinyl LP with exclusive color variants. The pre-order for the compilation opens 6/1 in tandem with the start of Black Music Month.

SME's massive #HipHop50 campaign will also see a social-media-driven weekly video series called “Made by Hip Hop,” developed by Certified and Mass Appeal, featuring influential personalities discussing the impact of hip-hop culture.

As if that weren't enough, #HipHop50 activations were launched in New York in January, among them the Fotografiska exhibition Hip Hop: Conscious, Unconscious, which will run until 5/21. Bursting with over 200 photographs dated 1972 to 2022, the show traces the rise and proliferation of hip-hop over the decades.

Watch the first "Made by Hip Hop" installment below while we practice our windmills and tabletops.