Hip Hop royalty gathered in the Bronx for a Thursday groundbreaking of the Universal Hip Hop Museum in the genre’s birthplace and home borough of rap icons like Grandmaster Flash, Slick Rick and Fat Joe.
Hip hop “came out of the Bronx like Vietnam,” recounted Fat Joe, who grew up in NYCHA’s Forest Houses in Morrisania.
“I’m just a kid, I’m talking 8 years old, and I would be listening to hip hop. And I knew this what I wanted to do. It was born from nothing, and it has fed millions and millions.”
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. served as master of ceremonies in the unveiling of a $349 million South Bronx development on the Hudson River, with the museum and 500 permanent affordable housing units included in the plan.
Pioneering hip hop DJ and rapper Grandmaster Flash choked up as he recalled the early days of a street phenomenon that would circle the globe.
“This is a really special time,” he said, recalling the 1970s roots of the music. “There was a time where nobody gave a f— about the Bronx. Nobody cared. This thing we were doing was anti-everything.”
The museum was “long overdue,” said Diaz, issuing a call for donations to help with the project. “Hip hop has continued to mature. It started from the early days of young boys and girls who saw the rest of the world ignore us.
“Showing the rest of the world the injustices that were happening in the South Bronx, in East New York, in Manhattan, in Harlem. God bless you all, and God bless hip hop,” he said.
Even Queens-born rapper LL Cool J acknowledged the borough as “the mecca of hip hop” before recounting how the music changed his life.
“When I saw Run-DMC, it took my soul,” he recounted of the legendary Queens rap trio. “And from that point on, I knew I had a journey that I was going to be dedicated to for the rest of life.” (Continue Reading)
