About the archive

TheBeeShine started as a simple question put to the people who built hip hop: what inspires you? Over seven years, that question turned into roughly 3,000 interviews with MCs, DJs, producers, b-boys and industry figures across the United States.

The focus was never on who was trending. It was on the artists who shaped the culture, from the first DJs and MCs working New York parks and parties in the 1970s, through the golden era of the 80s and 90s, into the early 2000s. Each conversation covers the same ground: earliest hip hop memories, favorite moments, and the challenges of making a life in the music.

Many of these artists had rarely been asked about their own beginnings on camera, and some are no longer with us. Together the interviews form one of the largest first-person records of hip hop history anywhere.

Using the footage

Filmmakers, museums, educators and researchers can license footage or request archive access.