Foundation Rocks combines Lost and Found (Shucks One), a series of portraits, illustrations, paintings and images that make up a tribute to the founding artists of UK & US hip hop.
Foundation Rocks captures the original hip hop mantras of ‘peace, love, and unity; knowledge, wisdom and understanding’, presenting a challenge to the dominating themes of violence and vice which resonate throughout hip hop today. The project is the artists’ search to rediscover these foundation principles by retracing the history of UK hip hop music and the individuals making it. It is an attempt to cement the originators of UK hip hop as icons for British music fans, who are often more familiar with the originators in the US.
Shucks One
Artist, Radio DJ, Youthworker, Experienced freelance journalist specialising in hiphop music and culture.
Shucks One, founder of the Kool Skool sound system and radio show, said: “The term ‘old school’ is often banded around without any real understanding of the underlying themes. With this series of works we explore messages and concepts, not just from hip-hop, but human history as well. It is part history lesson, part hip hop project.”
Shucks presents a unique visual art exhibition celebrating consciousness, the positive attributes and important figures in UK Hiphop culture and its wider implications on society.
Foundation Rocks is a visual interpretation of interviews Shucks One conducted with hip hop pioneers of the 1980s, whose music influenced a whole generation of young men and women in the UK. The works address issues of history, identity and religion.
