By Maggie Peknic
Located in the South Bronx, the Universal Hip Hop Museum’s mission is to “celebrate and preserve the history of local and global Hip Hop to inspire, empower, and promote understanding.” Currently on display is the [R]Evolution of Hip Hop: Golden Era 1986-1990.
This is the museum’s third exhibit. The first one focused on the 1970s, depicting the origins of hip hop and highlighting its founders, including artists Grandmaster Melle Mel, Kurtis Blow, and Afrika Bambaataa. The second exhibit then shifted to focus on the years 1980-1985, in which hip hop music videos and national tours surfaced. The third exhibit has now pivoted to hip hop’s golden era, 1986-1990. It depicts how “hip hop expanded by leaps and bounds as regional sounds and styles established themselves.”
The [R]Evolution of Hip Hop: Golden Era 1986-1990 hosts a plethora of musical artifacts. Adidas sneakers and track suits worn by RUN DMC members, Beastie Boys’s concert flyers, and Public Enemy’s medallion are just some of the hip hop memorabilia displayed throughout the exhibit. Visitors can also view various mixtapes, magazines, comics, and even an oversized boombox that reaches the ceiling.
The museum breathes life into these ‘ancient’ artifacts through technology. Next to the display case of nearly all the memorabilia are headphones. Put the headphones on, and you’ll hear either a song, a documentary, or the artist themself describing what’s on display. There’s also a subway cart where you can virtually spray paint your own graffiti.
The museum’s Director of Marketing and Visitor Services, Reggie Peters, notes the importance of utilizing modern technology within the museum. “Hip hop has been innovative and forward-thinking. To this generation, in terms of hip hop or even just communicating in general, it’s sacreligious to ignore the value of technology.”
The museum’s modern technology mimics hip hop’s innovative nature. It also allows for visitors to engage in the music. “The whole thing with our museum is we want participation,” Peters said. “We don’t want it to be dormant. We want it to be living and breathing.” One way to participate: spin records with guest DJs. Local DJs play at the exhibit on weekends, allowing guests the opportunity to spin records and try their breakdancing skills.
Visitors will be able to experience this immersive participation within the finished museum. Currently, the [R]Evolution of Hip Hop exhibit is on display across the block from the museum, which is currently under construction and is set to open in 2024.
The finished museum hopes to expand upon the exhibit’s immersive technology. The 50,000-square-foot-space will host a 3D theater for movie presentations, panel discussions, and performances. Along the walls and ceiling will be 3D photos and holograms. “I would love to see what a high school kid would say when he sees 20,000 hip hop photos in one file, where he can get information about each photo at the touch of a button,” Peters said. “There’s all sorts of technology we’re going to have to make it like Disney World.”
The museum will also be in the metaverse, allowing for global participation. The metaverse will host a prototype of the museum along with performance spaces, nightclubs, and chat rooms.
The technology will help the museum highlight the five pillars of hip hop: djing, emceeing, breakdancing, graffiti, and knowledge. “Hip hop itself is a sonic culture based on art, meaning it’s the music, it’s the downbeat, that drives the whole culture,” Peters stated as he described the five pillars. “From that downbeat, you get the dance; you get the MC. The artist brought the fashion element and the creative design element to the walls, to the floors, to the clothing. All of that history and culture of what we did and how we did it has to be documented and retaught to the next generation, so they stay close to the roots.”
While each element is vital to hip hop, Peters believes knowledge is the most important pillar. One of the museum’s purposes is to act as a “think tank.” The museum not only displays hip hop knowledge but actively teaches hip hop to future generations. This past summer, the museum held a Business of Music Institute Summer Camp for youth in grades 9-12. Additionally, the museum recently held Hip Hop Science panels. The panels “explored and celebrated scientific innovation, creativity, and the supreme mathematics that live in Hip Hop.”
The museum hopes its programs will act as a way to engage with the community’s youth and guide them in their hip hop journeys. Peters described hip hop’s impact on youth. “Hip hop is a great story in itself. It’s not the most easiest path to take. But for a kid coming out of the inner city with limited opportunities, this is one thing that is easily accessible to them and with the proper guidance, they can turn it into something to the level of Jay Z or a Diddy or a Kanye West. It’s doable. It’s realistic. It’s within one’s grasp with the right guidance.”
Peters hopes these programs along with the museum as a whole will “turn New York City into the Nashville of hip hop.” While other hip hop museums exist, none exist in hip hop’s birthplace of the Bronx. Peters says the museum’s opening is long past overdue. He says, “It’s a chance for the neighborhood to tell its own story and take its rightful place in history.”
While the museum is set to open in 2024, visitors can still check out the [R]Evolution of Hip Hop: The Golden Era 1986-1990 exhibit at 610 Exterior Street, Bronx.
