Afrika Bambaataa's 40,000+ vinyl collection goes on display at New York art gallery

Influential hip-hop pioneer, so much so that he is reported to have coined the very term, Afrika Bambaataa will have his record collection on show at a gallery in New York.

The artist has been so key to hip hop music’s growth that it’s no surprise the the Bronx DJ has a vast and extensive vinyl collection maping the history of the genre, which is now on display at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in NYC.

“We have emptied three of Bambaataa’s storage spaces,” curator Johan Kugelberg told the Village Voice, “identifying anything from documents with scripts to old tapes to Soulsonic Force costumes.

“The record collection is arguably the single most important component of it because it is the history of hip hop culture in sound being gathered by, in my opinion, the most important person in the history of hip hop.”

The archive will be open Monday to Friday from 12pm to 5pm until 10 August, when it will be transferred to Cornell University for a permanent display.

Check out some of the pieces beneath:

[via FACT]