All kinds of organizations are celebrating Black History Month and the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop with interesting programming.
One organization Genes and Gems, founded by two besties who met in college, is interested in helping artists trace their family trees back generations, and are embarking on a historic journey to link people back to their ancestors. Natlee Green from the Bronx and Keasha Williams from Queens have made it their mission to help others chart their genealogy.
They are currently working with 50 Hip-Hop artists, ranging from producers to rappers to dancers and more, to trace their roots.
A whole host of artists are set to discover their kin. Some of the names they’ve worked with already are Killer Mike, Black Thought (The Roots), Lord Jamar and Sadat X (Brand Nubian), Rah Digga, and Havoc (Mobb Deep).
Atlanta’s own Killer Mike has reached back all the way to the early 1800s and discovered multiple family lines through the use of “census records, vital records, conversations with historians, obituaries, DNA, and more.”
According to the release, Lord Jamar discovered his cousin (2x removed) was Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to serve as a Supreme Court Justice.
One of their most recent episodes looks at Havoc from Mobb Deep and helped him learn some of the greatness connected to those who came before him.