According to AM New York, plans to build a Universal Hip-Hop Museum in the Bronx are currently underway.
A city official confirms that the location will be along the Harlem River at 65 E. 149th St. near Yankee Stadium, and they’ll break ground in winter 2019. Legendary MC Kurtis Blow, the first rapper to be signed to a major label, teamed up with Ice-T and LL Cool J to help bring the museum to life.
“Blow, museum co-chairman, originally had his eyes set on a 2022 debut, but the museum’s opening in the borough where hip hop was born has reportedly been set back one year.” Along with the museum’s director Rocky Bucano, Blow appeared on Pix 11 on Tuesday (Feb. 12) to discuss that the opening of the museum is to coincide with hip-hop’s 50th birthday.
“Anchored in the birthplace of the culture, the Universal Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx will provide a space for audiences, artists, and technology to converge, creating unparalleled educational and entertainment experiences around the hip-hop culture of the past, present, and future,” reads the museum’s website.
Construction plans for the museum were approved by City Council in 2017. The museum is expected to take up two floors of Bronx Point, “a mixed-use, mixed-income housing development.”