Hip-hop flyers collection

1977-1985

Afrika Bambaataa (1957-), born Lance Taylor, is a disc jockey and hip-hop artist of Jamaican and Bajan descent from the South Bronx, New York. He grew up in the Bronx River Projects with his mother and uncle, who were both active in the Black liberation movement. His mother kept an expansive record collection and this laid a foundation for Bambaataa's musical career. He began to host hip-hop parties at community centers as a pre-teen and his parties grew in popularity in the 1970s.

After a transformative trip to West Africa as a teenager, Bambaataa adopted the name Afrika Bambaataa Aasim. He eventually founded the Universal Zulu Nation (UZN) in 1973. The UZN was a reformed gang and hip-hop awareness organization that grew out of Bambaataa's involvement with the Black Spades. The UZN operated under four pillars–MCing, breaking, DJing, and writing. The Soulsonic Force, one of Bambaataa's hip-hop ensembles, also developed out of the UZN. Bambaataa solidified himself as a pioneer of the hip-hop movement when he and the Soulsonic Force released "Planet Rock" in 1982. "Planet Rock" was the first hip-hop record to use synthesizers and electronic drums. Bambaataa resigned as head of the UZN in 2016 following child sexual abuse allegations from the 1980s and 1990s.

Johan Kugelberg (1965-) is a Swedish-born collector, publisher, and music historian based in New York City. Kugelberg grew up with an interest in countercultures, which later developed into enthusiasm for hip-hop as a new and developing genre. He began collecting hip-hop materials in the late 1990s. In 2010, he founded Boo-Hooray, a Manhattan-based archive focused on 20th and 21st century subcultures. Boo-Hooray's work involves collecting archival materials, placing collections with museum and university archives, and auctioning rare books and materials with strong archival value.