The name of the project comes from a term used in Hip Hop culture to describe the process of searching in crates of vinyl records in order to find sounds and melodies to “sample” that could be used to make new beats. In this context, it also refers to the archaeological crates that are used for transporting and storing museum objects.

Creating music inspired by, and using objects from the African instrument collections held in the Pitt Rivers Museum, artists from Inner Peace Records composed new music inside the museum space among objects taken from communities all over the world. Working in collaboration with musicians from colonised nations in Africa, the Inner Peace Records team gathered samples and composed new music using modern music making techniques and technologies.

In order to communicate the ideas effectively with a wide audience, a short film documenting the process was created, featuring interviews with historians, researchers and the musicians involved. The project also created resources that will be used by the museum as a new element to their collections.

Hip Hop is a truly global genre. Seeded in the poverty and neglect of late 70s New York ghettos, Hip Hop has bloomed into arguably the most influential cultural phenomenon of the 21st century, touching every nation on Earth.

Based on the 5 original elements of Dance, Graffiti, DJing, MCing and Knowledge (now encompassing a 6th element of Theatre and Literature) Hip Hop culture has always challenged the status quo and asked uncomfortable questions of its audience.

From the very beginning, Hip Hop artists utilised newly available technologies to reinterpret artefacts from their past; namely vinyl records borrowed from their parents. With DJs playing their favourite sections of these records in new ways, and finding the camaraderie of MCs; urban poets whose roots can be traced back through the beat writers of the 50s and 60s, to the West African tradition of Griot, Hip Hop’s founders created a completely new genre of music and gave their community a voice.

The techniques that these pioneering DJs used grew into the tradition of sampling; Taking short sections from various songs and playing them in loops, often altering the sound and tempo in creative ways in order to build up new rhythms and textures, a key component in the creation of Hip Hop music. Through the practice of always looking for innovative and unusual things to sample, Hip Hop has been influenced by, and in turn influenced, almost every other style of music.

Digging Crates looks at these traditions and histories from a fresh point of view; drawing parallels between the cultural fusions forged in the inequality and injustice of colonialism, and the cross pollination and global spread of Hip Hop culture which is itself a legacy of our uncomfortable global history. Not sampling from our parent’s album collections held in vinyl storage crates, but sampling from our ancestor’s music, held in museum collections.