2023 is an important milestone for hip-hop: the genre’s 50th anniversary. Which, if you’re wondering, traces its birth back to DJ Kool Herc’s ‘Back To School Jam’ party in August 1973.
The latest initiative commemorating the anniversary comes from Amazon’s audiobooks service Audible, which has commissioned a series of originals around the milestone.
The content (a combination of audiobooks and podcasts) include a Snoop Dogg special; a five-part series about XXL magazine’s famous ‘A Great Day in Hip-Hop’ photoshoot; further podcasts with yasiin bey, DJ Drama, Lil Kim, Chuck D; and an audiobook focusing on more than 100 women who played key roles in hip-hop.
All this will be gathered in Audible’s dedicated ’50 & Forever’ section. It all sounds good, although it’s making us wonder again about the relationship between Audible and sister company Amazon Music, which has also moved into spoken-word content with podcasts.
As yet the Audible originals appear to be exclusive to that service, but we can imagine them fitting in well on Amazon Music too.
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