Okotoks students debut mural at hip-hop studio

The faces of legendary rappers adorn a new Okotoks hip-hop studio. From old-school lyricists such as Tupac and Biggie to more modern-day artists like Kendrick Lamar and Drake, Artist Avenue’s new mural celebrates the long and diverse history of hip-hop. The mural came into being after owner and hip-hop enthusiast Sarah Moore commissioned the talents of two Holy Trinity Academy Grade 12 students, Ella Dash and Maddie Maher, who have both been working on the piece through August and early September. “We wanted it to be a timeline of hip-hop going from one end to the other,” said Maher, who got much creative freedom while leading the project. The mural takes the audience on a journey starting in the 1990s with the faces of Nas, Slick Rick, Eminem and more, with rappers Lil Wayne and Kanye West among the artists depicted in the 2000s portion, while the end of the wall shows artists of the 2010s like Nicki Minaj and Mac Miller. “My mom had been listening to hip-hop for a very long time… in the car, like we’d listen to hip-hop,” said Dash. “Everything’s kind of connected, so that’s what we tried to portray in the mural, the artists,...