If you are trying to find the intersection between Hip-Hop and Black beauty, just stop. There is none. Because the two paths didn’t converge; like graffiti blessed subway trains on adjacent tracks, they came up together because Black women have always been at the forefront of fashion, makeup, and style. Door-knocker earrings, leather jackets, blazers, and mid-calf boots, bold iridescent eyes and black-lined lips.
Hip-Hop fashion is Black women’s fashion; from the full defined eyelashes to the asymmetrical hairstyles.
Full stop.
They birthed the movement with the moment, and now they are reclaiming what has always been rightfully theirs. Suppose you created a Venn diagram between Hip-Hop and some of the most iconic moments in the culture. In that case, you’d have mad overlap between two names: Thembisa S. Mshaka and Ashunta Sheriff, who have joined forces to form Hip-Hop Beauty Circa 1973, which debuted a photo exhibition on December 5 during Art Basel 2025 in Miami.
The curation, in partnership with Gen Art, was a tribute to all the Black women who have helped shape a cultural phenomenon, specifically highlighting the contributions from photographer and Author of A Few Good WMN Cheryl Fox, and Mazi Smazi, a multi-disciplinary artist, featured in the NY Times.
“Let’s get back to the essence, because the essence is the imagery. We said we are going to bring this to the world stage and we are just going to take it to the art world. And so here we are,” Thembisa Mshaka, co-founder of Hip-Hop Beauty, said at the opening night. “We knew that we had great photographers between the two of us, because we’ve done so much campaign work, editorial work, album packages, we knew we had people who had archival artwork and we said, ‘let’s showcase that’ and that gave us another way to support women artists.”
The exhibition pays tribute to Hip-Hop’s lineage through portraiture, archival nods, and immersive design, blending retro sensibilities with futuristic energy—just like the culture it celebrates. Using LED displays, cutting-edge formats, and AI-assisted portrait work that enhances rather than replaces human artistry, Hip-Hop Beauty connects eras while staying true to the craft.
In the end, Hip-Hop Beauty Circa 1973 isn’t just an exhibit—it’s a reclamation, a reminder, and a revival. It restores Black women to the center of a culture they helped build, framing their fingerprints not as footnotes but as foundations. As the images glow across LED walls and archival memories pulse with new life, the message is unmistakable: Hip-Hop has always worn a Black woman’s face. And now, with their stories elevated to the art world’s main stage, the world is finally being asked to look—really look—at the women who shaped the style, the sound, and the soul of the culture.
