Inside an old bank vault is a tribute to Ralph McDaniels’ Video Music Box, which has been documenting hip-hop culture since the early 1980s.

Queen’s RUN DMC can be seen performing one of their early songs as they approached super stardom.

It’s not just a video screen. It’s an infinity room set-up that’s part of an immersive trip across 50 years of hip-hop.

What You Need To Know

  • “Hip-Hop Til Infinity: An Immersive Trip Across 50 Years” is a new immersive experience at Hall des Lumières in Lower Manhattan

  • It's located inside the landmark Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank building on Chambers Street

  • The exhibition looks back on 50 years of hip-hop culture with massive projections on the walls inside the building

  • There are also artifacts such as artist t-shirts, clothes worn by performers, classic mixtapes, magazines and stickers

The exhibition is called “Hip-Hop Til Infinity: An Immersive Trip Across 50 Years” at the Hall des Lumières in Lower Manhattan.

“We want to show that over the last 50 years that hip-hop has expanded and grown so much and has really impacted more lives than we can even imagine,” said Jon Colclough, vice president of creative strategy at Mass Appeal and co-producer of the exhibition.  

Hall des Lumières is Manhattan’s largest permanent center for custom-designed immersive art experiences, located inside the landmark Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank Building on Chambers Street.

The digital installation transports guests through hip-hop’s different eras and regions — starting in New York. The genre was founded in the Bronx.

There are projections all around, along with the original features of the 114-year-old building.

The building was restored over a two-year period by Hall des Lumières’ creator Culturespaces.      

“We have many, many international visitors that are coming here as well, and this adds to their sense of discovery and understanding of what New York City is about, it’s what makes this space truly unique,” said Tim Ceci, managing director of Hall des Lumières.

The show features artifacts such as artist t-shirts, clothes worn by the performers, classic mixtapes, magazines and stickers and miniatures of places in hip-hop history from artist Danny Cortes.

It’s co-produced by hybrid creative studio SUPERBIEN and entertainment company Mass Appeal.

Jon Colclough says the goal is to see hip hop culture and put it in places that make you look twice.

“We want to see it next to the Van Goghs and the Gutav Klimts and those world renowned artists, because our hip-hop legends and giants, they are just as important and just as influential, and hopefully now showing the fifty years of this expansion and bringing it into cultural institutions like this is only the beginning,” said Colclough.

“Hip-Hop Til Infinity” is on view through mid-September.

Find out more at https://halldeslumieres.com.