St. Louis has a history as a musical culture shifter. Jazz, the blues, rock and roll are just a few of the genres where artists with roots in the region have had a pivotal role in shaping sound for future generations. With “To STL With Love: A Celebration of St. Louis Hip-Hop Culture,” an exhibition now on view at Sophie’s Artist Lounge, curator Kris Blackmon reminds everyone that the same goes for hip hop.
“I want people to understand the diversity and the depth of St. Louis hip hop over the decades,” Blackmon said. “St. Louis has contributed a lot to the sound and the culture from the start and I just really wanted to speak to that.”
The city entered the global hip hop conversation with an exclamation point at the turn of the millennium by way of The St. Lunatics and Nelly, followed by Chingy. However, “To STL With Love” reminds its viewers that St. Louis is critical to hip hop’s origin story – beyond being the home of the first commercial radio station to play a rap record on its airwaves.
“We are a unique city and we have done a lot of things for hip hop and hip hop culture,” Blackmon said. “Within the city, but also nationally – and globally. We are a city that has inspired more than many people think.”
Blackmon, known within the St. Louis hip hop arts scene as the curator for “I Still Love Her: Women in Hip Hop” exhibition series, began formulating “To STL With Love” in 2023. She hoped it would be her way of celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip hop and the 10th anniversary of “I Still Love Her.”
The universe had other plans.
“I would’ve been rushed,” Blackmon said. “I needed to be 100 percent confident in what I wanted the finished product to be.”
So, she waited. She mapped it out. She wrote, reflected, and reached out—to artists, advisors, and eventually the Kranzberg Arts Foundation, knowing she needed more space to do her vision justice.
The exhibition opened just in time to get plenty of traffic from Music at the Intersection, which took over the Grand Center Arts District the second week of September.
What emerged was a multidimensional tribute to St. Louis hip hop—its legends, its underground, its mainstream moments, and its cultural intersections. “To STL With Love” continues through January 2026. The exhibition pays tribute to pioneers like DJ G Wiz, DJ Kut, DJ Charlie Chan Soprano and Sylk Smooth. It also gives a nod to the current and emerging names that are synonymous to hip hop in St. Louis. Trackstar The DJ, Tef Poe, Bates and KVtheWriter are just a few within the tapestry that carefully weaves together the then, now and next of St. Louis hip hop’s artistry and impact.
“I wanted people to see that in addition to the commercial, independent and underground scene, there were also pioneers and legends who’ve been doing a lot—from the city, within the city, and outside of it,” Blackmon said. “Our footprint is all through hip hop.”
The exhibition doesn’t just showcase music—it tells the stories behind the sound, and demonstrates how St. Louis has a presence in all of hip hop’s elements.
“I hope people feel pride,” said Blackmon. “I want people to reminisce and be reminded of the many things that the city has done as a collective. I want them to leave thinking, ‘Man, our city has really done a lot of dope things.’”
A self-proclaimed hip hop head, curation is one of the major ways she contributes to the art form.
For her, curation is more than assembling art—it’s a form of storytelling, and a way to preserve and elevate Black creativity.
Her journey as a curator began in 2012 with “Invisible No More,” an exhibition about missing Black women and girls, and violence against Black women. The next year MK Sadiq welcomed her to Urb Arts for her first installment of “I Still Love Her. He was the first person to refer to Blackmon as a curator—before she truly knew what that meant. Now, it’s a calling.
“My curation has been an opportunity to create space for artists—specifically Black artists who might not have shown work before,” Blackmon said.
As the title suggests, her current exhibition is a love letter to hip hop, to St. Louis and to the power of intentional art. It’s also a reminder that hip hop history isn’t just something that St. Louis inherited—it’s something that we helped shape.
“I want people to see the show and get curious, to dig deeper about all the ways we have been involved,” Blackmon said. “Hip hop is not excluded from the story of our city. It is St. Louis history. Period.”
“To STL With Love” is currently on display at Sophie’s Artist Lounge (3333 Washington Ave, St. Louis MO 63103) through January 2026. For more information, visit kranzbergartsfoundation.org/sophies-artist-lounge.
Living It content is produced with funding by the ARPA for the Arts grants program in partnership with the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and the Community Development Administration.
