03/20/2025
Michael McGuire · February 13 ·
Dear PEI Hip Hop Heads,
The East of East Atlantic Canadian Hip Hop Archive is a project I founded in 2017 to collect and preserve physical and digital hip hop recordings, show posters, album artwork, and other hip hop ephemera for cultural, academic, and journalistic research. The archive currently contains more than 2800 recordings, close to 500 posters, 50+ hours of video, and is always expanding its collection.
In the Fall of 2024, East of East curated an exhibition at the Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery focusing on Nova Scotian content. It included, among other things, a timeline of artists, a wall of show posters, selected physical recordings, and listening stations featuring playlists of past and present NS-based artists. The show also served as the kick-off venue for the 2024 Hopscotch festival, bringing the local hip hop community together in celebration of its own history and culture.
A new opportunity has come up: an offer to have East of East curate an exhibition at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery during the summer of 2025. Ideally, the show will highlight artists, recordings, posters, and videos. While East of East has a lot of PEI content in the Archive, there is also a lot still unaccounted for and this is where we need your help.
If you have recordings, album art, posters, video, or any other elements that would help to represent the great diversity of hip hop artists on the Island, please reach out to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
I am planning to come to Charlottetown on March 14-16 with my associate Unko Catfish and will have a CD burner and a scanner with me to digitize content that can be included in the exhibit (and added to the Archive). I would love to meet to discuss the plan and gather materials.
Time, as always, is a factor. Due to the short window before the exhibition begins, materials need to be assembled by May 1, 2025, along with a sense of what the exhibit will look like. I am confident, however, that with your help we can pull together something that celebrates PEI hip hop as fully and completely as is possible.
My role is as a curator, bringing the archive and my research into a gallery space. The point, however, is to celebrate PEI hip hop and the artists who create(d) and sustain(ed) the culture on the Island. I think this is a great opportunity to showcase the music and culture if we can get everyone to pitch in and contribute.
Let’s be honest: hip hop has never really been a cultural priority on the Island. Other forms of music have historically taken precedent. This, however, is a chance to showcase the past and present of PEI hip hop in a well-regarded and well-visited space during the summer months when both Islanders and tourists are around to check it out. I hope that we can bring a lot of attention to this exhibition, but also to your work, in general, and any shows that might be taking place around that time.
For now, please think about what materials you may have and consider connecting with me so we can showcase the best of what the Island’s hip hop community has to offer! I hope to hear from you!
Thank you for your consideration,
Michael McGuire/Hermitofthewoods
Director, East of East Atlantic Canadian Hip Hop Archive
