November 2022 was named Hip Hop History Month
As November winds down, YouTube Music is celebrating Hip Hop History Month. Nine out of 10 artists in the US for 2022 are hip hop artists and collectively, have earned over 16 billion views globally on YouTube this year. In celebration of Hip Hop History Month 2022, YouTube’s Director of Black Music and Culture, Tuma Basa, published a byline on the Official YouTube Blog where he talks about the “mic drop moments” around the iconic genre that shake and push the culture forward and how YouTube has allowed you to relive these major moments.
“YouTube is the institutional memory of hip hop,” Basa says. “If it happened and it was recorded, YouTube is where it lives.”
Throughout November, YouTube has led a campaign to amplify hip hop music and culture across the platform, including a logo takeover launch and a collection of playlists commemorating the various eras (‘88-’95, ‘96-’03, ‘04-’11, ‘12-’21), along with an intimate brunch event featuring a panel discussion about the “mic drop moments” and how YouTube stands as the digital archive of the genre.
Andre 3000 cemented the resurgence of southern rap at the Source Awards, DMX captured the minds, bodies and soul of the masses at Woodstock, and Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” marked her as one of the hottest rappers in the game, all without a cosign from one of her male counterparts.
The company also recently announced YouTube Black Voices Fund’s Music Class of 2023 which features incredible music minds such as Larry June, Armani White, and HitKidd. YouTube has partnered with Wallace “Wallo” Peeples to pilot YouTube Avenues, a program built to drive equity for and increase YouTube’s cultural relevance and authenticity in black communities across the US that have been historically underrepresented and underserved on the platform.
