Now this is a rapper’s delight!
The state awarded a $3.5 million capital grant to help build the first museum in the world dedicated to hip-hop music and culture, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.
The $80 million Universal Hip Hop Museum is scheduled to open in the South Bronx in 2023. The borough, better known as the “Boogie Down” Bronx in old-school hip-hop circles, is considered the birthplace of hip-hop.
The museum is currently open in a temporary space at 610 Exterior St. in Bronx Terminal Market.
The Hip Hop Museum, to be erected in the Bronx Point development, will generate tourism and tax revenues for the Bronx and New York just as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drives economic development in Cleveland, said the museum’s director, Rocky Bucano.
He said 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.
“The museum is part of the renaissance of the Bronx. The Bronx is coming back,” Bucano said. “But the museum will be of the people and for the people.”
The museum has corporate partners including Microsoft and MIT and support from hip-hop artists such as Nas and LL Cool J.
The Universal Hip Hop Museum will occupy 50,000 square feet in Bronx Point, the residential and retail project by L+M Development Partners that will be erected north of the 145th Street bridge along the Harlem River in the Bronx.
The development’s official groundbreaking is set to happen over the summer.
The museum also has received $6.5 million in funds from the city, Bucano said.
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