HIP-HOP AT 50: THE SUMMERSTAGE IS SET

The City Parks Foundation is celebrating hip-hop's 50th anniversary with a myriad of SummerStage concerts this year. On 7/22, Kool & The Gang will join Mobb Deep's Havoc, Noyd, DJ Les and GrandWizzard Theodore at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Corona. The show will be followed by DJ TedSmooth and the Cover Girls on 8/3 who will take over Crotona Park in the Bronx. The following day, 8/4, Grandmaster Flash and friends will host "Birth of a Culture: The 4 Elements Block Party" again at Crotona Park. Flash will be joined by graffiti artist James Top who will provide live painting. City Parks Foundation's Executive Artistic Director Erika Elliott found it was vital to include all four elements of hip-hop: emceeing, breaking, deejaying and graffiti art.

"Being authentic is incredibly important to me and the SummerSage festival, so I felt strongly that only including MCs for example would not be an accurate reflection of the culture that is hip-hop," Elliott told us. "I think we are one of the few festivals that is being intentional about celebrating all the elements."

SummerStage is taking place across all five boroughs in NYC. Additional artists performing include The Originals—Stretch Armstrong, DJ Clark Kent, Rich Medina and Tony Touch—Brent Faiyaz, Rah Digga, Nice & Smooth, Masta Ace, Special Ed, Black Moon's Buckshot, Sweet Tee, Raekwon and many more.

"I am most proud of getting to work with some of my musical heros, people like Grandmaster Flash, to celebrate this milestone," Elliott added. "SummerStage is celebrating the lasting impact of this culture in neighborhood parks that have distinct connections to the genre—from the South Bronx to Stapleton in Staten Island, Bed Stuy in Brooklyn, to Harlem in Manhattan. These are all neighborhoods that had an important influence on culture and its evolution. We are bringing the genre back to its origins in the Parks and making it free—that is something SummerStage as a festival is uniquely able to do."

The full SummerStage schedule is available here. In the meantime, we'll be working on our electric boogaloo.