The Hip Hop Museum is a museum dedicated to the celebration and preservation of Hip hop music, dance, art and culture and "permanent place to celebrate the music that has made the Bronx famous around the world". [1] [2] [3] The museum will be located on Exterior Street in the Lower Concourse neighborhood of The Bronx when construction is complete.
The museum was founded in 2015 as the Universal Hip Hop Museum, by a group of hip hop pioneers Rocky Bucano, Kurtis Blow, Grandwizzard Theodore, Joe Conzo, Jr. and Grandmaster Melle Mel, [4] to document, preserve, and celebrate the culture of Hip Hop. [5]
The museum rebranded as The Hip Hop Museum in September 2023.
The 52,000-square-foot museum will be part of a South Bronx multi-use development project at 610 Exterior Street called Bronx Point. Not far from the so-called birthplace of hip hop on Sedgwick Avenue, it will include a 300-seat theatre in addition to gallery and community space. [6] [7] The official groundbreaking was held on May 20, 2021, and involved a number of hip hop notables including Grandmaster Flash and LL Cool J. [1] [8] The museum was initially scheduled to open in 2023 in connection with the genre's fiftieth anniversary. [9] [10] Due to delays in construction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum is now scheduled to open in 2025. [11] [12] [13] [14]
The [R]Evolution of Hip Hop Experience opened at the Bronx Terminal Market on December 6, 2019, as the museum's first public exhibit in its temporary home until construction finishes. [10] The 2,350 square-foot exhibit was free to the public and served as a preview to what will be on display in the permanent home of the Universal Hip Hop Museum. The exhibit featured artifacts of Hip Hop culture, music, photographs kiosks with content and experiences, as well as interactive elements including a DJ stand where visitors can test out their skills. [15] [16] Following a closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the space reopened in November 2020 with an exhibit focusing on 1980s hip hop. [17] The [R]Evolution of Hip Hop exhibit has since closed. [18]
Kurtis Walker, professionally known by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record/film producer, b-boy, DJ, public speaker and minister. He is the first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a major record label. "The Breaks", a single from his 1980 self-titled debut album, is the first certified gold record rap song. Throughout his career he has released 17 albums and is currently an ordained minister.
Morrisania is a residential neighborhood in the southwestern Bronx, New York City, New York. Its boundaries are the Cross-Bronx Expressway to the north, Crotona-Prospect Avenue to the east, East 162nd Street to the south, and Webster Avenue to the west. Third Avenue is the primary thoroughfare through Morrisania.
Wild Style is a 1983 American hip hop film directed and produced by Charlie Ahearn. Regarded as the first hip hop motion picture, it includes appearances by seminal figures such as Fab Five Freddy, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, The Rock Steady Crew, The Cold Crush Brothers, Queen Lisa Lee of Zulu Nation, Grandmaster Flash and ZEPHYR.
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were an American hip hop group formed in the South Bronx of New York City in 1978. The group's members were Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Kidd Creole, Keef Cowboy, Scorpio, and Rahiem. The group's use of turntablism, breakbeat DJing, and conscious lyricism were significant in the early development of hip hop music.
John Byas, also known as The Original Jazzy Jay or DJ Jazzy Jay, is an American hip hop DJ and producer.
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Luis Cedeño, more commonly known as DJ Disco Wiz is an American DJ.
Clive Campbell, better known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc, is a Jamaican American DJ who is credited with being one of the founders of hip hop music in the Bronx, New York City, in 1973. Nicknamed the Father of Hip-Hop, Campbell began playing hard funk records of the sort typified by James Brown.
Joseph Robert Saddler, popularly known by his stage name Grandmaster Flash, is a Bajan DJ and producer. He created a DJ technique called the Quick Mix Theory. This technique serviced the break-dancer and the rapper by elongating the drum breaks through the use of duplicate copies of vinyl. This technique gave birth to cutting and scratching. It also gave rappers better music with a seamless elongated bed of beats to speak on. He also invented the slipmat.
1520 Sedgwick Avenue is a 102-unit apartment building in the Morris Heights neighborhood in the Bronx, New York City. Recognized as a long-time "haven for working class families," it has been historically accepted as the birthplace of hip hop.
Bronx Terminal Market, formerly known as Gateway Center at Bronx Terminal Market, is a shopping mall along the Major Deegan Expressway in Concourse, Bronx, New York. The center encompasses just under one million square feet of retail space built on a 17-acre (69,000 m2) site that formerly held a wholesale fruit and vegetable market as well as the former Bronx House of Detention for Men, south of Yankee Stadium.
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Hip Hop 50 is a media project by Mass Appeal to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip hop. The project is planned to include documentary films, EPs, podcasts, and other media.