Hip Hop Hooray!
Included in the newly approved $269 billion capital budget is a $1 million line item providing operating assistance to launch the new Universal Hip-Hop Museum in the Boogie Down Bronx, the borough known as the birthplace of the genre.
The museum is expected to open its doors by the end of the year, when construction is underway on its $80 million, 52,000-square-foot home in the Bronx Point development near the Harlem River in Mill Pond Park.
“The museum will be a cultural anchor in my district,” said Bronx Assemblyman Landon Dais.
“How many cities can claim to be creating a genre of music? The money will employ members of the local community, celebrate the culture and honor 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 endorsed it.
New York City rap legends including LL Cool J, Nas, Fat Joe and Grandmaster Flash attended the big event in 2021.
The idea of a hip-hop museum goes back more than a decade.
Supporters said the Hip Hop Museum is expected to bring in tourism and tax revenue to 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 shows by break dancers, graffiti artists, disc jockeys and MCs from the 1970s.
In addition, the first brick-and-mortar hip hop museum will be tech-savvy, hosting online exhibits.
The museum currently operates a Pop-Up shop on Exterior Street and has over 50 corporate sponsors.
The museum previously received millions of dollars from the city and state to help cover the cost of building the center, which will have gallery space, a black box theater, interactive exhibits, and administrative offices.
It also received $210,000 in city operating funds over the past three years, according to records filed with the city controller’s office.
“Hip Hop tells the story of this city and the Bronx very clearly. It tells the story of life between poverty and crime, of turning pain into purpose, of action,” said former Mayor Eric Adams when he announced the 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 an architect. He was a breakbeat DJ, who separated the most danceable parts of the songs on the turntables that formed the basis of modern hip-hop.
