Warner Music Group To Honour 50 Years Of Hip-Hop With Yearlong Celebration
Warner Music Group is excited to announce the launch of Hip-Hop Fifty: a yearlong, global celebration of the groundbreaking genre that turned the world on its head during the last half century. The far-reaching ‘Hip-Hop Fifty’ campaign will bring together the worlds of art, fashion, sports and more to honor every facet of America’s most popular musical genre.
The festivities kicked off at the Official 2023 Grammy House in Los Angeles during Grammy week. Presented by The Recording Academy and CBS and produced by ANTHEMIC Agency, who collaborated with Warner’s Global Catalog Division on the build-out, Grammy House was an immersive event space designed to spotlight five decades of hip-hop music and culture. Legendary hip-hop records from Warner Music’s catalog were featured prominently throughout the exhibition.
Warner Music will be joining forces with several iconic partners for initiatives around the ‘Hip-Hop Fifty’ celebration, including Dolby, LGND Music, New York Red Bulls, Peloton, and Vinyl Me, Please. Additional partnerships will be announced in the coming weeks.
To add to the excitement, Warner Music will celebrate the anniversary through Dolby Atmos re-releases featuring artists from its iconic hip-hop catalog. Fans will be able to enjoy these beloved albums like never before with unparalleled clarity and depth through their favorite Dolby Atmos-enabled streaming service. Warner Music and Dolby will also host listening events throughout the year to showcase these new immersive Dolby Atmos mixes in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and London. Each listening party will include Q&As with people involved in the featured album. More details about all upcoming Dolby Atmos releases and listening parties will be announced soon.
The celebration’s official Web3 partner, LGND Music, is set to create bespoke ‘Hip-Hop Fifty’ digital collectibles known as “Virtual Vinyl” for some of Warner Music’s pioneering hip-hop artists. Available through tiered passes or as standalone collectibles, the innovative music and collectibles platform will provide fans an opportunity to enjoy FLAC quality audio both in-app and on their desktop platform, while also granting access to exclusive Hip-Hop Fifty content, merchandise, physical vinyl, NFT’s and upcoming events. The full LGND x HIP-HOP FIFTY drop schedule is coming soon.
The New York Red Bulls, one of the ten charter clubs of Major League Soccer, have partnered with Warner Music to honor a proud NY Metro area anniversary with ‘Hip-Hop Fifty.’ The first of many collaborations throughout the year was the 2023 season jersey launch last week at the Hard Rock Hotel New York featuring Brooklyn-based female rap duo and 300 Entertainment artist, Girll Codee. There, the NY soccer club unveiled the Adidas jersey kit that was designed in collaboration with luxury streetwear designer, Daniel Patrick.
Peloton will celebrate hip-hop’s 50th anniversary throughout the year, starting on February 23 with a second iteration of its wildly popular Bad Boy Artist Series ride, first introduced in 2021. The 2.0 version will include a first of its kind 2 For 1 Run with instructors Alex Toussaint and Marcel Dinkins, as well as the first ever Live Member Bad Boy classes with Members in-studio across several different modalities. More details about Peloton’s ‘Hip-Hop Fifty’ partnership will be announced soon.
Vinyl Me, Please will produce limited-edition, vinyl versions of select hip-hop albums from the Warner Music catalog, starting in March with Earl Sweatshirt’s 2022 album Sick! The full schedule of vinyl releases will be unveiled soon.
News and updates about ‘Hip-Hop Fifty’ will be announced throughout the year. The campaign will be spearheaded by Warner Music’s Global Catalog Division, with collaboration across many other WMG entities including frontline labels, Warner Chappell Music (WCM), WMX, and ADA.
Listen to the Hip-Hop 50 playlist here.