Source: Taylor Hill / Getty
The history of hip hop is coming home to the Bronx — in the form of the Universal Hip Hop Museum.The virtual museum, in its fourth year of existence, has finally been given a brick and mortar site.
The project has Kurtis Blow as its chairman, Ice-T on its founding board of directors and LL Cool J as an honorary advisory board member. Partnering with prestigious names like Microsoft and Google, the museum will use technology to create a multi-generational experience— featuring music, artifacts, video and photography, research areas, and a performance stage.
“The Universal Hip-Hop Museum may be the single most important project for the preservation of hip-hop culture,” Blow said. “This new cultural institution will be a great new tourism destination for NYC and the Bronx.”
The plan for the site will also incorporate 1,045 units of affordable housing with priority for Bronx residents. It could also serve as a space for BronxWorks, a local nonprofit, which will be given space on the site during the first phase and additional educational programming could be operated by organizations such as the Bronx Children’s Museum, City Science and Billion Oyster Project.
We’re excited to see that at the crux of this incredible cultural institution, the site will offer space to the Bronx community. We’ll all be looking forward to seeing how it will incorporate one of hip hop’s greatest values: unity.
