The Grammy Awards kicked off the 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop celebrations with a performance featuring over 30 iconic hip-hop artists including LL Cool J, Ice-T, Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel & Scorpio (who performed at last year’s Licensing Expo); Run-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Chuck D & Flavor Flav, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Method Man, Busta Rhymes, Nelly, Swizz Beatz and more.  

Introducing the star-studded montage performance, LL Cool J described the historic milestone as “… of one of the greatest ongoing musical stories ever told.”   

As part of the worldwide celebration, The Brand Liaison is leading the licensing of official 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop merchandise with a vast library of close to 200 custom and authentic hip-hop art including photographs of iconic performers, old-school concert flyers, commissioned art from legendary graffiti artists, images of the original b-boy and b-girl breaking crews and more.    

The growing roster of licensing partners currently includes Mitchell & Ness, Philcos, IML, FUBU and several others providing official licensed merchandise including apparel, jerseys, headwear, posters, books, home goods and more.  

“We have assembled an incredible, authentic library of art for the 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop,” says Steven Heller, president, The Brain Liaison. “In fact, many of the images included in our 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop library were inspired by the same images shown on last night’s Grammy Awards, including authentic hip-hop flyers and even an image of the building that LL Cool J referenced started it all, at the corner of Sedgwick and Cedar Avenues in the Bronx.”     

Related:The 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop Teams with Beats Rhymes & Relief

A portion of all proceeds will be donated to the For the Culture Fund, The 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop’s charity created in conjunction with Beats Rhymes & Relief to raise awareness and support global humanitarian relief projects.