YouTube is showing up and we’re rolling FIFTY DEEP!
Aug 07, 2023 – [[read-time]] minute read
🎶 Once upon a time not long ago
When people rushed home to catch the #1 video
I was watching legends in the making on VHS tape
As a teen in Zimbabwe, that was my escape
Shoutout to Uncle Ralph for pioneering that flow
From Ice-T to Ice Spice, Hip Hop continues to blow
Bottomless Culture, Fifty Deep is unbounded
Institutional Memory, the institution is founded! 🎶
If you’re like me, you watched your favorite music videos on Yo! MTV Raps or BET’s Rap City over and over again. Fast forward to today and YouTube allows us to watch almost any video at any time in almost any place. This year marks a whole half a century of Hip Hop’s existence. YouTube’s only been around about a third of that time but no matter what era of Hip Hop you’re looking for, one thing’s for sure – it lives on YouTube.
To acknowledge this milestone of Hip Hop’s evolution over the last fifty years, we’re excited to announce FIFTY DEEP – a cultural campaign on YouTube that salutes how far we’ve come. Our mission is for every generation to dig into the gems of YouTube’s archival treasury of Hip Hop.
Starting on August 11 and running through the fall, YouTube will launch and support a selection of activations as a part of FIFTY DEEP to honor this moment in history. To begin, Hip Hop fans and music enthusiasts can look forward to:
- FIFTY DEEP Library: FIFTY DEEP will spotlight two thousand Hip Hop videos that have changed the game. These videos will appear in YouTube Music playlists like Fifty Deep, Fashion Killas, Sunny Daze, Its The Remix, Street Code and more, giving fans of every generation a chance to reminisce and discover music videos and songs they love plus others they may not have seen or heard before. More details on this coming soon!
- Type Beats Yoodle: On August 11, the YouTube homepage will feature a custom logo paying homage to the world of “Type Beats” where producers craft future hits and major artists seek inspiration. Just do a search for “Drake-Type Beats” or “Lil Baby-Type Beats” and see how many dope instrumentals you get. So many hit songs like Lil Nas X “Old Town Road”, J. Cole “Procrastination”, Pop Smoke “Welcome To The Party”, and Meek Mill’’s “I’m A Boss” all have origins from “type beats” found on YouTube. That same day, fans will be treated to a deep dive on YouTube’s Like & Describe Podcast with host MatPat, with both myself and Curtiss King as guests discussing the type beats phenomenon and its history.
- Hip Hop 50 Live @ Yankee Stadium: On the evening of August 11, YouTube will exclusively stream Hip Hop 50 Live at Yankee Stadium on Mass Appeal’s official channel, presented by Google Pixel. The star studded concert will include performances from Run DMC, Lil Wayne, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Lil’ Kim, Cam’ron, Common, Fat Joe, Ghostface Killah, Lupe Fiasco, Remy Ma, Slick Rick, Wiz Khalifa, T.I., Trina and so many more iconic artists. Set your reminders now, you don’t want to miss it!
- YouTube Avenues: Our grassroots education program with Wallo267 is back and a special section dedicated to the music discovery of FIFTY DEEP’s Library will be on hand. This year we are visiting Atlanta, New Orleans, Baltimore, Raleigh/Durham & Miami.
- Google Arts & Culture Hip Hop Hub: Our FIFTY DEEP music collection will be part of Google Arts & Culture’s new hub, which will feature a wide range of cultural institutions’ collections and curated stories.
So why are we going so hard to salute Hip Hop?
Because Hip Hop has been poppin’ on YouTube dating back to when Soulja Boy’s "Crank That" video went viral in 2007. Since then, we’ve had trailblazers like Cardi B, Latto, Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj, SZA and many more ruling our charts. Just last year, nine of the top ten artists in the U.S. were Hip Hop artists and collectively earned over 16 billion views globally.
In fact, the genius of Hip Hop has traveled way beyond the borders of the United States. The whole world is in on it. Global phenom and Argentinian producer Bizarrap has become a fixture of YouTube’s global charts with his BZRP music sessions along with rappers like Dave out of the UK and VannDa from Cambodia. I also want to give respect to the late Sidhu Moose Wala of India for his unique sound. We see Hip Hop artists from places like Turkey, Germany, France, Korea, Canada, Brazil, and so many more around the world sharing their take on the music and climbing the charts everywhere. I also can’t talk about the world and not mention Africa; shout out to Cassper Nyovest and Nasty C in South Africa. Home Team!
I’m proud that YouTube continues to be the institutional memory of Hip Hop. For me, YouTube is a place I can find nearly every version of every song, plus interviews, plus podcasts, plus commentary, plus live performances, et cetera, et cetera. Basically, if it happened and it was recorded, YouTube is where people come to find it. We’re so thankful for that support and stay tuned for more to come…Love!