The exhibition “Sounds of the City,” celebrates and examines the critical impact the city of Compton had, and continues to have on Hip-Hop. In the 1980s, gangsta rap was an emerging genre of Hip-Hop defined by its gritty, stark, and unrelenting depictions of inner-city street life. While Compton did not create gangsta rap, musical groups such as N.W.A. came to embody it. N.W.A.’s 1989 release of “Straight Outta Compton” catapulted the city into international consciousness as a place dominated by violence, extreme police brutality, and gangs.

Throughout the 1980s, hip-hop and gangsta rap decried socio-economic and cultural issues like police brutality, political apathy, poverty, and unemployment, by proposing militant solutions. Decades later, our communities are still being faced with these issues. Similarly, the pressure and dichotomy within Hip-Hop still exist today, and Compton continues to find itself at the forefront of the evolution of Hip-Hop.

“Sounds of the City” explores the monumental impact that Compton has had in the developing and ever-shifting sound of Hip Hop. By turning to local artists and spaces, this exhibition aims to contextualize Hip Hop, explore the social climate that became the backdrop of the music genre, give homage to the gathering spaces that build community, and highlight the work of local artists.

. At fifty years old, Hip Hop and the artists therein prove that the genre is ever-changing and evolving while still respecting the earliest innovators and lyrical geniuses who got their start performing in Compton.