Hip Hop Don’t Stop … and Neither Does Street Art

This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Hip Hop Don’t Stop will present another weekend of aerosol mural painting, hip hop music and dancing. For the full slate of activities, check out the event on our website or visit the Hip Hop Don’t Stop Facebook group.

Last year Hip Hop Don’t Stop, a collective of artists specializing in urban culture events (dj’s, hip hop concerts, b-boy dancing contests), created the jaw-dropping mural currently adorning the wall on the west side of the Museum parking lot. Here are a few photos from that weekend:

The obvious parallel to be drawn to this substantial artwork is the act of making graffiti and, in fact, it is graffiti. Graffiti is broadly defined as the images and text scratched, painted or drawn on property, although the term “graffiti” usually carries the connotation that the image created is considered vandalism. “Street art” may be a more applicable term for the Hip Hop Don’t Stop creation and the embrace of spray paint art in hip hop/underground culture.

No matter what it’s called or the reason for it, as long as we have lived in societies we have also lived with public art designed to fulfill goals as diverse as benign beautification, undermining authority, and outright revolt. Perhaps it’s the reaction to the commodification of space through the use of the sign, or maybe it’s simple acknowledgment of the power of shared space. Either way, these art-making methods embody a long, fascinating history and call into question a multitude of issues as old as humanity itself.

To get a bit of a grasp on the world of graffiti and street art, here are a few resources to check out. If you have a few of your own to suggest, please do so in the comments, and leave your opinions about the often-controversial role that graffiti plays in social life, too. Also, be sure to take an hour or two this weekend to stop by and see the goings-on at the Hip Hop Don’t Stop mural at 1101 1st Ave South in Fargo (near Duffy’s). You’ll see talented artists at work that would love to answer your questions about their craft.