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Nuface, Atlanta's cultural icon, who preserved history through hip-hop collection

Nuface has a special collection of autographed magazines, cassette tapes, concert ticket stubs, and memorabilia.

ATLANTA — Larry “Nuface” Compton is a traveling hip-hop exhibit who takes his one-of-a-kind collection everywhere he goes. 

Four years ago, 11Alive’s Neima Abdulahi first introduced Nuface, where he showed his passion for collecting artifacts over the decades.

When he said his slogan “Nuface Was There,” he literally meant that. Nuface has captured Atlanta hip-hop history, in real-time, from all sub-genres and eras of Atlanta music. He loves to share the pivotal moments that shaped the culture in his front-row seat to witness it all. 

The collector is finally getting his deserved recognition from the city. He reflected on his previous feature on 11Alive in 2019. 

“In that clip that you showed, it talks about me having a dream of having my own museum. After that, I was featured in the trap music museum and I did my own exhibit called 'Nustalgia,'” he said. 

RELATED: He's known as Atlanta's 'hip-hop hoarder' and he has dreams of opening a museum.

Nuface has a special collection of autographed magazines, cassette tapes, concert ticket stubs, and memorabilia.

While he dreams of opening a physical building, he's been busy promoting at ATL 50 exhibit, the upcoming Rock The Bells cruise and music conferences.

“I’m there for those people who can’t make it. I feel like that’s been my calling and my duty,” he said. 

He’s received unwavering support from industry greats like Killer Mike and Big Boi. 

Nuface is wherever the culture is witnessing history, with his Atlanta collection at the forefront. 

The collector is now building a time capsule with the city of Atlanta and ButterATL to commemorate 50 years of hip-hop. 

“I came here during the build-up of all those and the evolution from the ground up. If we’re talking 50 years of hip-hop, Atlanta has at least 32 years of that,” Nuface said.

“I was raised off of, first, you have to see it to believe it. And also become the change that you want to see in the world. So, one, I had to show people what that looked like,” the collector added.

Nuface said his mission with his artifacts collection is simple. 

“First of all, black representation, and probably the education behind it. My purpose is to preserve it and put it in a time capsule and learn the history about it,” he said.

Nuface will continue working towards one day opening up his own museum. Only then, his artifacts will travel with him, from exhibit to exhibit, to put on for the culture. 

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