Meet King Monk - the man on a mission turning street culture into museum history for Leeds’ hip hop legacy

Hip hop is a global movement, and in Leeds its story has been shaped, documented and preserved by people embedded in the culture itself.

Among them is King Monk - artist, former MC and founder of the Hip Hop Historian Society - whose work over decades has helped secure hip hop’s place within the city’s heritage, from grassroots beginnings to international recognition.

From painting clothes in the 1980s to pioneering graffiti workshops and bringing communities together through music, his journey traces the evolution of hip hop in Leeds.

In recent years, that work has moved into museums, exhibitions and education, opening up the culture to new audiences and ensuring its stories are not lost.

“I’ve been archiving Leeds hip hop since about 2003,” he said.

“That’s when I consciously started doing it and talking to people and saying we need to archive and document things.”

His involvement in the scene stretches back much further.

He said: “I used to paint T-shirts and denim jackets and jeans. So that’s going back to the ’80s.”

By the early 2000s, he had become a key organiser within the city’s developing hip hop infrastructure, including The Invizible Circle - a community-led collective where MCs, DJs and breakdancers contributed monthly funds to support recordings, releases and studio space.

“I created an organisation pulling everyone together,” he said.

“We set up our own recording studio, our own record label, and we won an award for that as a community organisation.”

That collective spirit would go on to underpin his heritage work, particularly his long-standing relationship with Leeds City Museum.

Over more than a decade, he has contributed to displays, helped shape collections and developed public events focused on hip hop culture.

“Letting hip hop into a place like that was a real chance,” he said.

“Recognising that it is a real culture.”

He also helped bring global figures in hip hop to the city, including Afrika Bambaataa, one of the culture’s founding pioneers, as part of earlier museum events.

“We brought Africa Bambata to the museum,” he said.

“It was the biggest turnout they’ve ever had. We had 3,000 people turn up in one day.”

Those years of collaboration culminated in A Hip Hop Journey: 50 Years Of Kulture, shown at Leeds City Museum from July 2023 until March 2024.

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The exhibition marked 50 years since the first block party and formation of hip hop culture, while placing Leeds firmly within that wider global story.

Co-curated with Leeds Museums and Galleries and the Hip Hop Historian Society, the exhibition explored the five pillars of hip hop - MCing, Breakdancing, DJing, Graffiti Writing, and Knowledge - and brought together objects and stories from across the city and beyond.

It transformed gallery space into an immersive environment, including a replica graffiti-covered New York subway train, a reconstructed 1990s bedroom studio, and a record shop installation.

The exhibition also paid tribute to figures within Leeds’ own community, including Barber B, who helped curate the display and contributed artefacts before his death.

It also recognised earlier influences such as Romano, a pioneering barber in Chapeltown whose work helped shape styles within the scene.

“He started cutting Afro hair when white people wouldn’t even touch it back then. He completely changed that,” he said.

At the time of installation, Monk described the moment of seeing the project take shape inside the museum.

“This is mind-blowing, it’s my dream come true,” he said.

The exhibition also reflected Leeds’ wider hip hop history, drawing on decades of local culture shaped by artists, sound systems and early pioneers who helped establish the city’s scene.

“We got the opportunity to present the Leeds hip hop community. It was about putting the Leeds twist on it,” he said.

Bringing together artists, record shops and communities from across Leeds and Yorkshire, the exhibition highlighted both the creativity of hip hop and its underlying values.

“The fifth element is knowledge, wisdom and understanding,” he said. “That’s the most important.”

Despite limited resources, the exhibition attracted more than 80,000 visitors and went on to win a Museums and Heritage Award, gaining international recognition.

“We didn’t have any funding,” he said.

For King Monk, however, the achievement sits alongside a wider aim: ensuring hip hop is properly recognised and recorded within the city’s cultural landscape.

“This is how it came to Leeds and how it evolved in Leeds and what it did for all these people,” he said.

Looking ahead, he believes there is still more to be done to embed hip hop within the city’s cultural infrastructure.

“We need a building where we should have hip hop exhibited all the time. A permanent space celebrating the culture,” he said.

His vision is for a space that brings together exhibition, education and community use.

“Make it into an academy where we can teach people. An exhibition space so there’s a permanent museum of the heritage and history,” he added.

Alongside that, he hopes to document the culture more permanently in print.

“I’d like to make a book dedicated to telling the stories of Leeds, the people, who, what, where, when,” he said.

For someone who has spent decades ensuring hip hop is recognised as part of the city’s heritage, the motivation remains consistent.

“I do have plans, and I need help,” he said.

“I know it would be very beneficial to the community.”