Cordless microphone used by Rakim to record The 18th Letter: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A wireless microphone used by Rakim to record the album "The 18th Letter" (1997). The hand-held microphone has a circular silver mesh wire grill covering the foam interior of the microphone. The grill is attached to a black plastic cylindrical handle with text printed in silver type near the attachment reading "SHURE" and "BETA 58A" twice around. The handle is made from two pieces, with a small square digital display screen on the top half of the handle bordered by gray plastic, with "L3 638-698 MHz" printed in white type below it. White type reading "UR2" on two opposing sides is printed at the bottom of the lower half of the handle. A smaller round-edged cylindrical piece of black plastic protudes from the bottom of the handle. The bottom half of the handle (b) screws off to reveal a battery chamber that holds two (2) AA batteries. Opposite the battery chamber is a digital push-button menu with four buttons reading clockwise from top: up-facing arrow, "enter", down-facing arrow, "exit". The button menu is directly below the digital display screen on the exterior of the top half of the handle. Beneath the buttons is a manufacturer's label with serial and model numbers, and a key for the menu buttons.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1997
• Manufactured by: Shure, founded 1925
• Owned by: Rakim, American, born 1968
• Type: microphones
• Medium: metal, foam, plastic, and wire
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 10 × 2 1/4 × 2 1/4 in. (25.4 × 5.7 × 5.7 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Hip-hop (Music)
• Topic: Rappers (Musicians)
• Object number: 2016.10.1
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Rakim
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: No Known Copyright Restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.