Hip-hop was never meant to be pinned down.

From its roots in unruly block parties in the Bronx in the late 1970s to its current status as the dominant driver of popular culture globally, it’s a subculture that has never stopped charging forward, morphing and spreading its tentacles in new and unexpected ways.

At once brash, unpredictable, obscene, uplifting, intellectual and provocative, the genre has always worn its outsider status as a badge of honor.

Now it’s on a gallery wall.

The new exhibition, “Respect: Hip-Hop Style & Wisdom,” on view now through Aug. 12 at the Oakland Museum of California, ventures to tell the story of this important social movement with a dazzling multimedia show featuring hundreds of items that give insight into not only the genre’s underground roots but also its pervasive future.

Don’t expect to see any dinosaur bones.

“Most museum exhibits look at the origins of a work, but we’re looking at what it means when hip-hop is approaching its 40th anniversary,” says René de Guzman, OMCA’s senior curator. “We’re looking at it as a youth movement.”

Many visitors will have a hard time making it past the entrance of the show, where they will be immersed in the four pillars of hip-hop: rapping, DJing, breakdancing and graffiti art.

Dubbed the Hip-Hop Dojo, the room gives patrons a chance to play on turntables, build rhymes and practice their tagging skills. It also doubles as a performance space for visiting artists like the San Francisco video mashup producer Mike Relm, who has created an interactive clip offering a crash course on the entire history of hip-hop in just under an hour.

It was important to make the initial exhibit hands-on because “hip-hop is a genre that asks folks to engage in it and get better at whatever they do,” de Guzman says.

More importantly, it puts the artifacts from the rest of the show into motion — the way they were meant to be experienced.

“Respect: Hip-Hop Style & Wisdom” is loaded with photocopied handbills and vintage snapshots, turntables and clothing. Lots of clothing. There’s a video reel that highlights the way hip-hop first stumbled its way into mainstream America’s living rooms via variety programs like “Soul Train” and “The Gong Show.”

There are also some more impressive displays, like a pristine Chevy Impala convertible lowrider; classic 1980s portraits from the scene’s early days by photographer Jamel Shabazz; and a sound suit sculpture by the American artist Nick Cave (not to be confused with the Australian musician with the same name).

Then there is the tapestry by New York portraitist Kehinde Wiley, who studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and was recently commissioned to paint Barack Obama’s official presidential portrait.

“There’s so much good stuff,” de Guzman says.

Together, the array of material serves as a testament to the inventiveness and pervasiveness of a culture with an infamously cutthroat turnover rate.

It will also help assuage those who wonder if these relics really belong in a museum.

“I do think it’s a unique opportunity to look back at hip-hop in certain way,” says Jahi, the Oakland rapper who tours with Public Enemy as part of the group PE 2.0 and creator of the interactive lecture series “The Intersection Between Hip-Hop Culture and Education.”

“The fact that we have a complex, multilayered culture that is less than 50 years old touching the world is exciting,” he adds. “What other place does it belong than a museum?”

De Guzman staged a similar show in his previous role as curator at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. In 2001, he brought into the gallery an expanded version of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s hip-hop exhibition “Roots, Rhymes and Rage,” which was organized by Kevin Powell, an activist, public speaker and music historian.

“I remember it being a struggle those many years ago to get people to understand why hip-hop culture was in these mainstream spaces,” Powell said. “There were a lot of debates, a struggle to get financial support, and critics who just did not get it, or want to get it. We can say now we have a recognition that hip-hop, like jazz and rock ’n’ roll before it, is here to stay.”

Music naturally plays a large part in “Respect: Hip-Hop Style & Wisdom.” Among the bleachers that simulate public spaces like parks and playgrounds, there are listening stations with playlists that expose the many paths hip-hop has taken through the years.

The exhibition also takes care to highlight the Bay Area’s contributions to the genre, from introducing radical politics to the indispensable phrases (everybody say, “hella!”), and business models established by local rap icons like Too Short, E-40, Digital Underground, Tupac Shakur, the Coup and MC Hammer.

“The biggest thing the bay did for me is introduce the idea of the independent hustle,” says Jahi. “The Bay Area is ground zero for putting your music together, making a plan and taking it to the streets. No middleman. You can make something of yourself.”

OMCA will offer a series of events and programs through the run of the exhibition that echo the message, including lectures, workshops and block parties.

“What I hope is that it feels like a party for five months,” de Guzman says.

If nothing else, it’s a great way for visitors to look back and see how culture as a whole has evolved.

“The beautiful thing about hip-hop, including in the bay, is that it has given us an opportunity to highlight where we are from, on our terms, unapologetically, proudly,” says Powell, who is working on a biography of Shakur, the late Bay Area-repping artist who lived in Marin County and then Oakland when he came up as a member of Digital Underground.

“That is why this new exhibit is so important. It gives a living and breathing history lesson, and a reminder of the foundation for all that is now.”

Aidin Vaziri is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop music critic. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MusicSF

“Respect: Hip-Hop Style & Wisdom”: Now through Aug. 12. Museum admission is $15.95 general, $10.95 seniors and students, $6.95 youth ages 9-17, and free for members and children 8 and younger. There is an additional $4 charge for special exhibitions.. Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. http://museumca.org