The Connection Between High Art and Hip Hop?
If you listen to hip hop, or even just a bystander looking onto today’s pop culture world, it’s no surprise to you how the extravagance of rappers manifests itself in the most visually attracting ways.
The tattoos, the chains, the fresh threads, hip hop artists portray themselves to stun and grab attention. Enter Cecilia Azacarte, an art director who has created B4XVI, a blog detailing the links between todays rap world with fine art from up to the 16th century. We can see the similarities between Flemish painter Quentin Matsys’ oligarch and 2 Chainz’s gold donned outfit or a Mesoamerican statues resemblance to up and coming rapper Yung Thug. Browsing through B4XVI is an interesting set of juxtapositions that show how, although we may see hip hop culture as extravagant and boisterous at times, it’s nothing that we as humanity have never seen before.