Installation: Hip-Hop is Dead by Oliver Okoth, Nov. 8-31 2012 @ National Museum

Dates: November 3-31, 2012
Venue: Creativity Gallery, National Museum
Entry: Museum Rates Apply

When you turn on the radio and hip-hop tunes in, do you think music or din? That is the point that Victor Okoth addresses as he takes us on a musical art journey with striking compositions and installations motivated by hip-hop sounds and lyrics.

The main message in this exhibition, which resonates with American rapper Nas eighth studio album Hip-Hop Is Dead, is that whereas original hip-hop had deep messages that were intended by marginal black youth to shed light on contemporary politics, history, and race, today’s hip hop is caught in fierce crosswinds of vulgarism, bling-bling materialism and violence.

Hip-Hop is important to Okoth precisely because American hip hop artists are to some extend responsible for influencing social behaviour of Kenyan youth. And that is what provoked him to use his artistic expression to analyze hip-hop.
The exhibition begins by highlighting what Okoth sees as good hip-hop and ends with a dramatic installation of a shooting ring.