Success! You Don’t Got Dis: A Hip-Hop Legacy

Exhibition Opening Dates: November 3, 2023 – January 7, 2024

Emory Libraries and Science Gallery Atlanta celebrated Atlanta’s 50 years of Hip-Hop by co-sponsoring You Don’t Got Dis: A Hip-Hop Legacy over the holiday season. Over 2,400 visitors came to mark the genre’s success and staying power!

Visitors enjoying the You Don’t Got Dis pop-up exhibition.

More About the Exhibition

In 1993, Darryl “Jasz” Smith opened EarWax Records in Midtown Atlanta with the goal of making hard-to-find music easily available. Credited as the first Atlanta retailer to carry an extensive selection of hip-hop music, EarWax’s prime location (Peachtree St.) made it a popular public meeting place as well as a destination for DJs, artists, producers, promoters, athletes, and celebrities.  EarWax hosted media events, live performances, listening sessions, and the iconic rap duo OutKast in-store. 

The You Don’t Got Dis exhibition made you feel like you had just entered EarWax back in ’93 by highlighting Smith’s unique hip-hop collections, as well as those of other notable collectors, producers, and DJs, to showcase the vast archival legacy of hip-hop. The exhibit featured never-before-seen photographs and flyers (from concerts and events), rare mixtapes, cassette and vinyl installments, magazine collections, a graffiti exhibit, and an EarWax Records pop-up store filled with vinyl. 

 As we celebrated hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, it is important to acknowledge that Atlanta serves as a nexus where the past, present, and the future of hip-hop collides and should be amplified. This exhibit demonstrated that moment, but also presented a charge to the rest of the city: This 50th hip-hop celebration should not be fleeting, but rather the start of a concerted effort to document and preserve this great history!