A historic concert, 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop Mixtape Live, with 50 MCs from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s will take place on June 17, 2023, at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Mixtape Live concert is being hosted by DJ Jazzy Jeff, a Grammy Award winner; Doug E. Fresh, a hip-hop legend known as the “Human Beatbox”; and Charlie Mack, an insider in the entertainment industry and longtime promoter and manager.
Jazzy Jeff and Doug E. Fresh spoke with rolling out about the concert, and what 50 years of hip-hop means to them.
How does it feel to be a part of this concert?
DJ Jazzy Jeff: I’m just happy that something that we went through during a period of time fighting for and hoping that we were going to be able to keep this alive is here, and we’re able to celebrate the 50th anniversary of it. I am in full celebration mode.
Doug E. Fresh: I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of the artists that I have not seen in a long time. A lot of them are friends of mine through this journey in hip-hop and I’ve seen a lot of them over the years, but we’re all moving around so much that we don’t really get to see each other. This is what I would call when a school has a reunion and this would be a hip-hop reunion in celebration of the 50 years because sometimes you don’t see that friend of yours that you was [sic] cool with in school until y’all have that class reunion. I want to thank Charlie and everyone that played a part in bringing everybody together collectively, for the purpose of celebrating 50 years of hip-hop, but also the many years of just our friendships and our relationships. It’s been a beautiful thing.
Hip-hop is 50 years old. What does that mean to you?
JJ: I remember the early days of hip-hop hearing a lot of the naysayers say this isn’t going to be around in the next couple of years. You don’t have a right to tell us what’s going to be here, and what’s not going to be here. To look up and realize that this is a global celebration of something that somebody said wasn’t even going to be around is even more special. It’s hard to argue that hip-hop isn’t the most influential music on the planet.
DF: Hip-hop is making people happy, giving people jobs, and creating opportunities. So many things have come from it. So many TV shows, so many life changes, so many culture changes, and so many people have been brought together through hip-hop. It has changed things in a way that made the world a better place and it made us all have this thing that we enjoy so naturally. We’re able to take care of our families, take care of other people’s families, and create other opportunities.
