YouTube is celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop with its FIFTY DEEP campaign featuring an archive of 2,000 music videos showcasing the artists who have defined the genre, “from Ice T to Ice Spice.”
To celebrate fifty years of hip-hop, YouTube is honoring the stars who have defined the genre from the beginning with the launch of its FIFTY DEEP campaign, which features an archive of 2,000 music videos spanning the history of hip-hop.
YouTube Music will see several new playlists, including a 50-song survey with nearly four hours of music, which YouTube’s Director of Black Music and Culture, Tuma Basa, called a celebration of rappers “from Ice T to Ice Spice.”
“If you’re like me, you watched your favorite music videos on Yo! MTV Raps or BET’s Rap City over and over again. Fast forward to today, and YouTube allows us to watch almost any video at any time, in almost any place,” says Basa in a YouTube blog post. “This year marks a whole half a century of hip-hop’s existence. YouTube’s only been around about a third of that time, but no matter what era of hip-hop you’re looking for, one thing’s for sure — it lives on YouTube.”
On August 11, YouTube will begin to launch and support a variety of activations as part of FIFTY DEEP throughout the fall. These include a video spotlight of 2,000 genre-defining hip-hop videos across various YouTube Music playlists and other features across Google.
Also, on August 11, Hip-Hop 50 Live hits Yankee Stadium in New York, and YouTube will provide viewers with live-streaming coverage of the concert. The Hip-Hop 50 Live stream will take place on the official Mass Appeal YouTube channel, the New York-based music magazine and brand co-owned by rapper Nas.
YouTube will also bring back its Avenues program launched last year, with visits to cities including Detroit, Houston, and Philadelphia, providing educational outreach to underserved communities. YouTube Avenues will visit Atlanta, Baltimore, Miami, New Orleans, and Raleigh this year.
