Legendary photographer and Hip Hop Historian Ernie Paniccioli's photos are currently displayed in an exhibit titled A Hip Hop Life: Five Decades of Hip Hop Music Life and Culture at the Grammy Museum Experience prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Paniccioli's images captured a time before Hip Hop exploded into the mainstream becoming a multi billion dollar industry. "If you look back in history, you'll see that every musical genre came from the hood, or the ghetto ", Paniccioli said. "Reggae came from the slums, Jazz came from cat houses, Rock & Roll came from the poorest of the poor. Every artform came from the street up and was rejected and ridiculed and then accepted."

The exhibit is part of a celebration of Black Music Month which is observed in June. Director of artist relations and programming Mark Conklin told Fox 5 New York: "Black music is, in essence American music. It speaks it to the experience all of us have culturally and historically. We wanted to bring together programming, exhibits and events that would celebrate all of that and give new generations an understanding of how important the music is to the country." Paniccioli's work has been been published in his coffee table book Hip Hop at the End of the World: The Photography of Ernie Paniccioli. "If I can be remembered, if my work can be appreciated in the future, that's the legacy" the 75 year old photographer said.

A Hip Hop Life: Five Decades of Hip Hop Music Life and Culture | Grammy Museum Experience Prudential Center | 165 Mulberry St., Newark, N.J. 07102