Nas: Photos From the Billboard Cover Shoot

In 2017, Google reached out to Peter Bittenbender for his enter on an version of the search engine’s day by day Doodle. The tech large had known as on Bittenbender, CEO of leisure firm Mass Attraction, to assist it acknowledge hip-hop’s forty fourth anniversary. As he and Mass Attraction labored on the Doodle — which ended up that includes a graffiti model of the Google emblem — Bittenbender had a realization: The style’s fiftieth anniversary was proper across the nook.

“It was all targeted on 50,” he says of his sport plan since. “Let’s get forward of this. That is crucial second on this era of hip-hop and, culturally, crucial motion of our lifetime. So let’s not give it some thought a month earlier than — let’s set it up years prematurely.”

On Aug. 11, hip-hop will rejoice 50 years for the reason that night time in 1973 when legendary DJ Kool Herc lit up a home social gathering within the Bronx together with his turntables and sparked a cultural motion that embraced private type and taste amongst DJs, MCs and dancers. Bittenbender, a hip-hop connoisseur, didn’t need to let the monumental anniversary move with out due recognition, so he known as his Mass Attraction co-partner, Nas, to start planning the most important celebration of the style in its historical past.

“For a few years, we’ve been speaking about at the present time coming,” says the revered Queens MC. “It’s nice to see every thing occurring, too. You see among the pioneers outdoors extra and being celebrated. Everyone’s gathering round this complete second to make the world know to not sweep this beneath the rug. That is actual.”

Learn the complete cowl story right here.