THE HIP HOP MUSEUM PRESENTS ‘WHEN THE UNDERGROUND BECOMES THE ARCHIVE’ AT SHEPARD FAIREY’S WORLD-PREMIERE ART CAR

A conversation on art, memory, and cultural authority — presented September 26 at CART Department, 16 Morton Street, New York, NY

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, September 21, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — There is a question that has followed Hip Hop since the very first party in the Bronx: who gets to decide what counts as art, and who gets remembered for making it?

On Saturday, September 26, from 6pm to 9pm, The Hip Hop Museum brings that question into the room at 16 Morton Street with “When the Underground Becomes the Archive: Art, Music, Memory, and the Making of Cultural Authority.” The panel gathers Rocky Bucano, Founder and CEO of The Hip Hop Museum, alongside the pioneering DJ and inventor of scratching Grandwizzard Theodore, and founding graffiti artist and designer Eric Orr — three men who lived the culture before the world agreed to call it culture — for a conversation about what it means to move from the underground to the archive, and who has the power to make that move happen. RSVP here.

“Hip Hop has never needed permission to be art,” says Rocky Bucano. “It was art from the very first time a needle touched a record in a Bronx park, from the very first rhyme that turned a street corner into a stage. What we’re doing on September 26 is not asking the culture to prove itself. We’re putting the truth on the table — the artifacts, the archive, the people who were there — because this culture was always legitimate. The world is just finally catching up. And that conversation belongs at The Hip Hop Museum first.”

The panel is grounded in a history The Hip Hop Museum has long championed: Hip Hop and punk emerged from the same disinherited streets in the 1970s — two undergrounds built by young people who were told there was no future for them, and who built one anyway. Different languages. Same refusal to stay silent about who holds the wealth, and who gets left out of it.

THE BACKDROP: SHEPARD FAIREY‘S UNTITLED (ART CAR)
That history sits at the center of the room the panel takes place in. The setting is the world premiere of Untitled (Art Car) — artist Shepard Fairey’s first intervention on a vehicle, presented by CART Department. Fairey has wrapped a 1937 Packard Touring Sedan in intricate metallic gold patterns, one side entertaining Hip Hop phrases from Slick Rick, Chuck D of Public Enemy, and The Notorious B.I.G., the other drawing on punk lyrics from Joe Strummer of The Clash, Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys, and Jamie Reid’s work with the Sex Pistols. Ten new works inspired by the car — mixed-media stencil, silkscreen, and collage pieces on paper — will be exhibited alongside additional existing works by the artist.

PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE
Wednesday, September 23 | RSVP
Press Preview, 4pm–6pm • VIP Preview, 6pm–9pm

Thursday, September 24 | RSVP
Artist Talk with Carlo McCormick and Shepard Fairey, 4:30pm–6pm
Opening Reception with DJ G-Bo The Pro, 6pm–9pm

Friday, September 25 | RSVP
“When Rock Met Hip-Hop,” moderated by Steven Blush with special guests Janette Beckman, Eric Haze, Pete Nice, and Drew Stone, 6pm–7:30pm

Saturday, September 26 | RSVP
“When the Underground Becomes the Archive,” presented by The Hip Hop Museum with Rocky Bucano, Grandwizzard Theodore, and Eric Orr, 6pm–9pm

Exhibition on view Thursday, September 24–Sunday, September 27 • Free and open to the public • 12pm–6pm daily

PANEL GUEST BIOS
ROCKY BUCANO is Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx, combining television engineering, music label management, and nonprofit governance to strengthen Hip Hop’s legacy in community building, advocacy, and social justice.

GRANDWIZZARD THEODORE is a DJ and turntablist widely credited as the inventor of the scratching technique — using it as a means of storytelling and emotion, and securing his place as one of the greatest of all time.

ERIC ORR is an artist and designer from New York City who came up alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, and Keith Haring in the late ’70s, pioneering a substitutive style of graffiti art that eschewed “writing” for visual iconography.

ABOUT THE HIP HOP MUSEUM
The Hip Hop Museum will include a dynamic blend of traditional exhibits and immersive experiences — rare artifacts, memorabilia, visual arts, interactive stations, digital installations, live performances, and community engagement — allowing visitors of all ages to engage deeply with Hip Hop’s history and its ongoing influence on modern life. The 55,000-square-foot environment will reflect Hip Hop’s kinetic energy, as vibrant, dynamic, and communal as the culture itself. Its opening marks a historic occasion in the celebration and preservation of Hip Hop culture.

ABOUT SHEPARD FAIREY
Shepard Fairey (b. 1970, Charleston, South Carolina) is widely known for his Andre the Giant Has a Posse street-art campaign (1989) and his Hope image for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Merging street art with political messaging through high-recognition imagery and bold graphics, Fairey occupies a unique place in the canon of global contemporary art. Untitled (Art Car), created on a 1937 Packard Touring Sedan, contrasts two musical perspectives on capitalism.

ABOUT CART DEPARTMENT
CART Department is a cultural platform devoted to the automobile as an artistic and social artifact, exploring how cars shape identity, aesthetics, and collective imagination at the intersection of automotive culture, art, and design. Visit www.cartdept.com and follow @cartdept on Instagram.
Media Inquiries: Quyn Duong, quyn@cartdept.com 347-454-6608.

EXHIBITION & PANEL DETAILS
CART Department, 16 Morton Street, New York, NY 10014
Exhibition: Thursday, September 24–Sunday, September 27 • 12pm–6pm daily • Free and open to the public
Panel: Saturday, September 26 • 6pm–9pm

Bryna Jean-Marie
The Hip Hop Museum
bryna@thhm.org

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