Maker’s Mixtape celebrates artists whose practices animate processes foundational to the mixtape format— compilation, splicing, collage, looping and overlay. By remixing diverse source materials and juxtaposing voices to establish complex narratives, both recording and visual artists have transformed popular understandings of what it means to be a maker in the twenty-first century.
Over hip-hop’s decades-long history, visual artists such as Derrick Adams have been inspired to use collage as a political device, by infusing images of the black figure with detailed nuance, color and particularity. In his works on paper, Adams focuses on “the fragmentation and manipulation of structure and surface, exploring self-image and forward projection.”
The reinsertion of ardently queered, popular images back into mainstream discourse is a practice that applies to both art and music. Through inviting visual artists to share the songs that motivate them to create, Maker’s Mixtapes draws meaningful connections between inspiration and process. Here is what Derrick Adams can be caught rocking out to in his Bed-Stuy studio:
