“Dope” New Way to Experience the Metroplitan Museum of Art with Your Favorite Rappers

In “Juicy” when the Notorious B.I.G. says “fuck all y’all hoes,” no one expects to see an ancient artifact of a hoe (the farming kind). But Regina Flores Mit, a graduate student at Parsons design and technology program is building an exciting bridge between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the songs of the world’s most famous rappers. Her new project, The HipHop Project (located at the URL rappersdelight.nyc), takes certain words from various rap sounds with lyrics sourced from Genius and pairs them with famous artwork from the around the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The project was part of Mit’s internship at the Media Lab at the Met, responding to the ongoing question of how to get the younger generation to appreciate the museum. As Mit tells Vice Motherboard, The rappers and songs were chosen through a study that included the participation of community leaders from the The Baisley Housing Project, an R&B singer, a writer on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The API of Genius and the Met’s own API were combined together for the result. In the next iteration of the on-going project we’d love to see the images come with captions to describe what the objects from the collection are.

Songs so far in the project include Kanye West, “No Church in the Wild,” Jay-Z “Public Service Announcement, Drake “Know Yourself,” Public Enemy “Fight the Power,” and more. Enjoy this fun project here!

Next, read about the documentary Seeing Nas: Time Illmatic which features NYC’s Queensbridge Houses, where Nas grew up.