LL COOL J, Pop Smoke, Cam’ron and Rakim will be the faces gracing special edition metro cards in New York City in celebration of Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary.
The MTA announced the news on Friday (August 4), just one day ahead of LL and the late Pop Smoke’s cards debuting on Saturday (August 5). The former’s cards will be available only at the Forest Hills-71 Av station in his hometown of Queens, while Pop’s will be sold at both the Canarsie-Rockaway Pkwy (L) and New Lots Av (3) stations in his hometown of Brooklyn.
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While no exact date or location was given for Cam and Rakim’s versions, the MTA said they will be available later in August.
Check out a preview of all four cards below:
4 new commemorative MetroCards are dropping as part of a collaboration with @UMG in celebration of #HipHop50!
Grab yours at full-service vending machines at these stations starting tomorrow:
🔵@llcoolj: Forest Hills-71 Av
🔵Pop Smoke: Canarsie-Rockaway Pkwy (L) & New Lots Av (3) pic.twitter.com/Ta0Z38Gspc— MTA (@MTA) August 4, 2023
This isn’t the first time the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has tapped into the culture. Amid the pandemic in 2021, the MTA teamed up with New York filmmaker Nicolas Heller to get 25 celebrities to record COVID safety warnings that were played throughout NYC trains and buses.
As New York City is the birthplace of Hip Hop, it wouldn’t have been a campaign if the city didn’t use some of its most legendary rappers and figures. Among the voices were Young M.A, Cam’ron, Dave East, Angie Martinez, Angela Yee, Fivio Foreign, Malibu Mitch, Desus Nice, The Kid Mero, Peter Rosenberg, Jadakiss and more.
The latter was the first one to reveal he would be joining the campaign when he took to Instagram and posted a video of himself reading his script with Heller. The rest of his peers followed in his footsteps, like Yee who shared her rehearsal as well.
“S/O @newyorknico for making this happen,” Jada wrote in part of his caption. “I can’t wait to hear this for myself He Heh!”
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Yee said in her caption: “My mom has worked for the MTA for over 30 years so she was super hype. But I did read this with an attitude because it grinds my gears when people hold up the train.”
The recordings have since stopped playing.
