Hip Hop Hooray!
Tucked into the just-approved massive $269 billion state budget is a $1 million line item providing operating aid to launch the new Universal Hip-Hop Museumin the Boogie Down Bronx, the borough known as the birthplace of the music genre.
The museum is anticipated to open its doors by year’s end, when construction of its $80 million, 52,000-square-foot home at the Bronx Point development along the Harlem River in Mill Pond Park is completed.
“The museum will be a cultural anchor in my district,” gushed Bronx Assemblyman Landon Dais.
“How many cities can say they created a genre of music? The money will hire local community members, celebrate a cultural identity and recognize those who helped create this genre of music,” he said.
Dais said lawmakers from The Bronx and across the city and state support the Hip Hop Museum as a symbol of New York pride. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is a Bronxite and Gov. Kathy Hochul and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins also approved it.
New York City rap legends including LL Cool J, Nas, Fat Joe and Grandmaster Flash attended the groundbreaking back in 2021.
The vision for a hip-hop museum goes back morethan a decade.
Supporters said the Hip Hop Museum is expected to generate tourism and tax revenues for the Bronx and New York, just as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drives economic development in Cleveland.
The museum will celebrate hip-hop culture, not just the music. That means there will be exhibits on break dancers, graffiti artists, disc jockeys and MCs dating back to the 1970s.
In addition, the first brick-and-mortar hip hop museum will be tech-savvy, by hosting online exhibits.
The museum currently operates a Pop-Up store on Exterior Street and has more than 50 corporate sponsors.
The museum previously received millions of capital dollarsfrom both the city and state to help cover construction costs for the facility, which will house gallery spaces, a black box theater, interactive exhibits, and administrative offices.
It also has received $210,000 in city operating funds the past three years, according to records filed with the city comptroller’s office.
“Hip Hop tells the story of this city and the Bronx so vividly. It tells life amid poverty and crime, of turning pain into purpose, of making it,” former Mayor Eric Adams said when announcing construction dollars for the Hip Hop Museum in 2022.
According to the museum’s website, hip hop culture was born on Aug. 11, 1973 at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue.
Clive Campbell, better known as DJ Kool Herc, was the architect. He was the DJ breakbeat, who isolated the most danceable beat portions of songs on turntables that formed the foundation of modern hip-hop.
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