Bronx Hip Hop Museum Wins $3.75 Million Grant From New York

THE BRONX, NEW YORK CITY — The world's first hip hop museum will be built in The Bronx with the help of a $3.75 million grant from the state of New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.

"It's the best Christmas gift ever," said Universal Hip Hop Museum spokesperson Renee Foster. "It's like Santa Claus."

The $80 million museum is slated to open at the newly developing Bronx Point in the South Bronx in 2023, according to its website.

Rap icons LL Cool J, NAS and Q tip serve as cultural ambassadors and corporate partners for the $80 million project include Microsoft and MIT, which is designing interactive software to build personalized playlists for guests, according to Foster and the Museum website.

The Proposed Museum Exterior at Bronx Point

The Empire State Development cash will help build a 50,000-square-foot museum on the Harlem River, preserve the history of hip hop, develop community programming and launch a job-training program.

The museum will become a cultural center, drawing people from around the world to experience the five elements of hip hop: MCing, DJing, b-boying, graffiti art and knowledge, Foster said.

"Hip hop culture was born in the Bronx and New York City is the cultural center of the world," she said. "We're joining institutions like Carnegie Hall and all those great artistic institutions."

The Universal Hip Hop Museum currently operating as a pop-up at the Bronx Terminal Market at Exterior and East 150th Street and Foster said more than 3,500 people have made reservations to come see it.

Bronx Point is being developed by L+M Development Partners and Type A Projects and will also include a outdoor concert space, a multiplex theater and 1,045 units of housing, the Bronx Borough President announced in 2017.

Site of the Bronx Point Development

Construction on the Hip Hop Museum is slated to begin next summer and the museum should open in 2023, officials said.

"Oh my goodness," said Foster. "The museum is going to be amazing."