The Grammy-winning SF record label Empire has a local celebration for the 50th anniversary of hip hop Sunday, with Too Short, and DJs Sway Calloway and Chuy Gomez.
This year’s 50th anniversary of hip hop celebrations pinpoint the genre’s origin moment to a 1973 house party in the Bronx at which DJ Kool Herc played a celebrated set. Fifty years later, the biggest shows celebrating the milestone have been a star-studded concert at Yankee Stadium in New York this August, star-studded tribute segments during the Grammys and the VMAs, and Questlove is putting together A Grammy Salute to 50 Years of Hip Hop that will air on CBS in December, with scheduled performances from Common, De La Soul, LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, and plenty more.
And locally here in SF, NBC Bay Area reports there will be a 50 Years of Hip Hop celebration this Sunday at SVN West, hosted by Too Short, plus longtime KMEL DJ Chuy Gomez and SiriusXM DJ Sway Calloway,
The DJ lineup boasts DJs Steady, Cream of Beat (the pairing of Mindmotion and DJ Ivan), Big Von, Scotty Fox and others. Organizers say there will also be food trucks, vendors, break dancers, and a hip hop battle, so there may be other surprise guests who appear.
Empire is a record label founded in SF, and has released or distributed work by Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, Shaggy, Iggy Azalea, and even a few Snoop Dogg releases.
EMPIRE Salutes 50 Years of Hip Hop is Sunday, October 15, 2023, 12-6 p.m., at SVN West, 10 Van Ness Avenue (at Market Street); $25, tickets here
Image: SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 25: Too Short performs during the "H.S. Reunion Tour" at Golden 1 Center on August 25, 2023 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
