QUEENS

Queens has given hip-hop some of its most versatile voices - a borough that has produced pioneers, poets, street legends, and global superstars. From Run-DMC and LL Cool J blazing trails in the 1980s to Nas redefining lyricism in the 1990s, Queens artists have set standards that shaped the culture worldwide. The borough’s neighborhoods - Hollis, Queensbridge, Jamaica, Corona - became legendary through the voices that rose from them.

The golden era saw groups like A Tribe Called Quest and Onyx expand the possibilities of sound and style, while Mobb Deep’s Havoc and Prodigy delivered some of the rawest street narratives in rap history. MC Shan, Roxanne Shanté, and the Juice Crew carried the borough’s competitive fire, while artists like Kool G Rap pushed the boundaries of wordplay and storytelling. Later, 50 Cent’s meteoric rise from South Jamaica brought Queens back into global dominance, while Nicki Minaj broke barriers to become one of the most influential artists of her generation.

Queens has always been a borough of innovation and reinvention. From LL to Nas, Mobb Deep to Nicki, Run-DMC to A Tribe Called Quest, the artists of Queens continue to define hip-hop’s past, present, and future. This exhibit brings together the borough’s wide-ranging voices - the hard-hitting, the experimental, the commercial, and the underground - all tied together by the unmistakable Queens spirit of ambition and originality.