MXO ‘The Arts Unplugged’: Hip Hop Celebrities Gather For Groundbreaking ‘Universal Hip Hop Museum!’

June 17, 2021 ruthmaxey1 358 Views african american entertainment news, african American lifestyle, arts and culture, Bronx nyc new York, Hip Hop Celebrities Gather For Groundbreaking ‘Universal Hip Hop Museum!’, hip hop genre, hip hop music genre, the arts, the arts unplugged, the performing arts, universal hip hop museum

**NAS, LL COOL J AND FAT JOE BREAK GROUND FOR THE UNIVERSAL HIP HOP MUSEUM IN THE SOUTH BRONX OF NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK**

YourBlackWorld.net, By Victor Omondi, Posted June 17th 2021

On May 20th, Hip Hop royalty met on a huge plot of bare land for a ceremonial groundbreaking of the Universal Hip Hop Museum in the south Bronx, facing the Harlem River. Some of the Hip Hop big names who graced the occasion are Slick Rick, Fat Joe, Nas, LL Cool J, Chuck D, and Grandmaster Flash. City and state officials unified with them to plant shovels on the ground for the $80 million, 52,000square-foot museum funded by the city, state, and private money.

The event applauded Hip Hop, which originated from 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, about two miles from the museum location at 50 East 150th Street, between Melrose and Mott Haven. The museum began ten years ago when the museum’s executive director Rocky Bucano endeavored to exalt rap and its origins in the Bronx. The museum will also refer to the five pillars of Hip Hop: breakdance, graffiti art, knowledge, DJing, and MCing.

“It’s a long journey, but a very worthwhile journey to see what should have happened already is finally happening. The museum represents the creativity and the free expression that came out of this community and now has become the most powerful art form in the entire world,” Bucano said in a statement.

LL Cool J accredited Bucano for maintaining the museum’s idea alive through his determination.

“This was like the first time where I felt like, ‘Wow, like it’s possible to be powerful, it’s possible to be somebody, it’s possible to have meaning in this world,” LL Cool J stated. “Hip Hop is one of those things that gave my life meaning.”

The statement was seconded by Fat Joe, who referred to the museum as “long overdue.”

Unable to hide his happiness seeing the creation of the museum, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., a lover cum historian of Hip Hop, said, “We expect that when a family from Australia, or Japan, or Germany, come to New York City that their kids are going to say, ‘yeah, we want to go to New York City, Mom, and Dad, but we also better go to the Bronx and see the Hip Hop museum.”