Hasta La Ideas

Artist Lyle Owerko’s “The Boombox Project” documents different examples of the “gargantuan conglomerations of electronics, lights and chrome-plated gadgetry” that was synonymous with urban street sounds in the ’80s. Starting in the mid-’90s Owerko collected some 42 prime examples of the devices, and the best of the best are currently on display at Manhattan’s Clic Gallery. (For those of you far from Gotham, Amazon has just released the accompanying book, and Owerko’s even got a line of corresponding Gelaskins.)

In the following video Owerko discusses his collection with the eye of a connoisseur–“It was always a turn-on to see [the soft-touch cassette doors] slowly open because that connotated quality and craftsmanship”–and hip hop legend Fab Five Freddy explains the role of the boombox in distributing street music in a pre-iPod era.

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