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Tennessee Tech will celebrate the 50th year of Hip-Hop Thursday night on Thursday.
History Professor Arthur Banton said lead the event, as someone from Brooklyn, who saw the genre’s development. Banton said that the event will include lots of music, fun, and reflections.
“People can expect to get a brief snapshot of Hip-Hop history through my experience,” Banton said. “From someone who started at very young collecting records and ultimately where I became part of Hip-Hop, first as a fan, but also later on as someone who was part of their work.”
Banton said that he was involved in Hip-Hop on both an artistic and professional level for more than 40 years. Banton said that during this time he interacted with the genre as a DJ as well as both a journalist and publicist.
“I’ve gone through a lot in the 40-plus years with Hip-Hop so this is a chance to see what it was like for me growing up with Hip-Hop,” Banton said. “As opposed to coming into it when it was already established like most people generally are.”
Banton said that his mission with the event is to show visitors a different side of Hip-Hop as someone who watched it evolve. Banton said that the first Hip-Hop party to occur took place in the Bronx, New York on August 11, 1973. Banton said that since then the genre, the genre has become a game-changing influence on both music and culture.
“As a scholar, as someone who’s actually connected to Tech through the history department, part of what I’m trying to do is to showcase different aspects of history that people aren’t necessarily familiar with,” Banton said. “And I think that everyone individually contributes a larger collective of American history.”
The event begins at 6 p.m. in the Derryberry Auditorium building.
