Harris Leads Party for Hip-Hop

Celebration at vice president's residence marks 50th anniversary
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 9, 2023 4:00 PM CDT
Harris Marks Hip-Hop Milestone
Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, speaks during a celebration of hip-hop in Washington on Saturday.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Calling it "the ultimate American art form," Vice President Kamala Harris led a celebration of hip-hop on Saturday, marking its 50th anniversary. "Hip-hop culture is America's culture,"" Harris said in remarks to more than 400 people at the vice president's residence, the Hill reports. "It is music and melody and rhyme. Hip-hop is also an ethos of strength and self-determination; of ambition and aspiration; of pride, power and purpose. Hip-hop is a declaration of identity." The event was a collaboration with the Recording Academy's Black Music Collective and Live Nation Urban, per Deadline.

Artists in attendance included Common, D-Nice, Omarion, Jeezy, MC Lyte, and Roxanne Shante. Members of Congress also were there, and politics was not absent. Harris is "rooted in hip-hop," the CEO of the Recording Academy told the crowd. "Every day, Vice President Harris is fighting for the people," Harvey Mason Jr. said, per Politico. "She's fighting for our people." When Harris' husband, was introduced, he proclaimed, "This is a hip-hop household!" (More Kamala Harris stories.)

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