"Hip-Hop Nation" at the Brooklyn Museum Shows Items from Tupac’s Estate

From September 22 to December 31, 2000, the Brooklyn Museum in New York presented the exhibition “Hip-Hop Nation: Roots, Rhymes and Rage”. It was organized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, with journalist Kevin Powell serving as guest curator. More than 400 items were on display, including personal belongings from the estates of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G..

“This is our art”

A large part of the exhibition consisted of fashion. Powell described hip-hop to CBS News as “urban folk art” and emphasized that the exhibition must not exclude violence and sexism. The show fell into a period when both deaths remained unsolved: Tupac and Biggie had become victims of drive-by shootings.

The museum director said that a public museum must make art relevant to its neighborhood. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame had already addressed the subject earlier that year with its own exhibition (report from January 2000). Later exhibitions concerning Tupac are listed under Exhibitions and Museums.