Spotify captures four hip-hop influencers in classical form at RapCaviar installation

In its second artistic installation, the streaming service is displaying statues of Cardi B, Jaden Smith, Juice WRLD and Gunna in a classical pantheon format

Spotify
A sculpture of Cardi B at Spotify's RapCaviar Pantheon at Brooklyn Museum on April 02, 2019 in Brooklyn, New York. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for Spotify)

Streaming audio service Spotify announced the return of its RapCaviar Pantheon and is slated to honor four of the today’s biggest hip-hop influencers with life-sized sculptures in an artistic installation.

The second group of artists for the 2019 event will include Cardi B, Jaden Smith, Juice WRLD and Gunna. Emulating the ancient Greeks, each of their likenesses will be captured in statues and displayed in a pantheon exhibit at New York’s Brooklyn Museum.

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“Spotify is committed to supporting young, innovative artists who also have a positive impact on the music industry, culture, and society,” said Carl Chery, Spotify’s Hip-Hop curator and Head of RapCaviar. “These four bold and fearless artists are striving to make changes with their music, and we’re thrilled to induct them into the program.”

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Spotify unveiled its first RapCaviar Pantheon in 2017 with sculptures of 21 Savage, SZA and Metro Boomin. The Pantheon was created by Spotify’s in-house team to honor artists in the hip hop genre who continue to shape the music and the culture.

The company says the event symbolizes how heroes of antiquity were celebrated by creating structures made from stone, marble or bronze in “positions that embodied their achievements.” The 2019 inductees will have their images rendered in a life-size structure that symbolizes their artistic innovations and their personalities.

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Spotify claims that Jaden Smith’s “artistry defies convention, and the best is yet to come.” In the structure, he can be seen with two heads, but the second head is in his hands, which Spotify says signifies “the dueling characters in Jaden’s music.”

When it comes to Grammy-winning rapper Cardi B, she is rendered with an African hat on her head that mirrors the one Queen Latifah sported in the 80s, as she holds a cellphone, which they say is because “this past year, Cardi owned the cultural conversation, and the phone in her sculpture is a nod to her influence going beyond music.” Spotify says Cardi B as one of the most important artists in pop culture as she has become the first female solo rapper to win a Grammy.

Each of the sculptures will be displayed at the Brooklyn Museum from April 3-7.

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