Hip-Hop Turns 53: From the Bronx to the World
Hip Hop Turns 53: From the Bronx to the World
- Hip-hop emerged from Black and Latino communities in the Bronx in the 1970s, building a new culture.
- The Hip Hop Museum documents hip-hop's evolution and its impact as a global art form.
- The museum's mission is to honor hip-hop's history and its continued influence worldwide.
Fifty-three years after hip-hop emerged from the streets of the Bronx, the culture that began with block parties, DJs and young people creating something out of very little has become a global musical powerhouse
The Hip Hop Museum celebrated at Aura 57 in Manhattan, bringing together some of the artists and DJs who helped build the culture alongside a new generation keeping it moving.
Among those turning up to celebrate were hip-hop legend Yo-Yo, Special Ed, CleoTrapa, luxury fashion designer Romeo Hunte and legendary DJ Red Alert.
Radio/TV personality Jazmyn Summers was there for Radio One to bring you the story.
Born in the Bronx
Hip-hop began in the Bronx in the 1970s, emerging from Black and Latino communities at a time when New York’s economic and social landscape was bleak. At parties and gatherings, young DJs, MCs, breakers and graffiti artists began building a new culture from the ground up. The music and movement spread from the Bronx to the rest of New York, then across the country and eventually musically dominated the world.
Rocky Bucano, CEO and co-founder of The Hip-Hop Museum is a Bronx native who began DJing as a teenager in the 1970s.
“Hip Hop is one of the most powerful artistic revolutions to emerge from the United States,” Bucano says about the Museum’s mission.
He describes hip-hop as having become “the most popular art form in the entire planet” and that’s the history The Hip-Hop Museum is honoring.
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The Museum’s permanent home at Bronx Point is designed not simply as a shrine to the past, but as an institution documenting hip-hop’s continuing evolution. Bucano calls it the “official record of Hip Hop,” emphasizing that its story belongs not only to New York but to the global community that has embraced the culture. Its official opening is scheduled for spring, 2027 but it stages regular activiations, workshops and exhibitions around the country,
Bucano notes that hip-hop is now found everywhere from Brazil and China to Japan, describing it as a culture that has “galvanized the spirit” of people around the world.
The anniversary party did much more than pay tribute to the past; it celebrated that the beats and flow created by young people in the Bronx became a soundtrack for the world and 53 years later is still making history.
Article by Jazmyn Summers.
Photos by Melisa Nyomi Stoll of Melshotya. You can hear Jazmyn every morning on “Jazmyn in the Morning “on Sirius XM Channel 362 Grown Folk Jamz. Subscribe to Jazmyn Summers’ YouTube. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
