How Bx. rolls
Hip hop stars, artists celebrate boro’s culture
THEY BROUGHT the real Bronx cheer.
Hip hop icons joined other Bronx-born notables and the Wildlife Conservation Society this week to highlight several hallmark features of the borough’s cultural heritage.
Among those: Its status as the birthplace of hip hop, and its internationally known zoo.
“The Bronx is so diverse culturally,” Bronxite and hip hop pioneer Curtis (Grandmaster Caz) Fisher (inset) of the Cold Crush Brothers told the Daily News. “With all races, colors, creeds and religions. We all met at the zoo — that’s one thing that we all had in common.”
In upcoming months, the zoo will have unique pieces of art on display, integrated with wildlife and conservation — plus breakdancing classes; doowop, hopscotch and rhyming performances.
The events slated to roll out this spring are part of the Boogie Down at the Bronx Zoo campaign, created to honor the borough’s rich culture as well as the multitude of folks — and species — who call it home.
To kick it all off, several iconic borough figures got together in a garage on Bruckner Blvd., where they watched famed graffiti artist John (Crash) Matos tag up a classic 1980s taxi.
“I wanted to just let the cab talk to me, so I brought a lot of really vibrant colors because, being Latino from the Bronx, colors is what we do,” Matos told The News.
Crash chose the chromatic hues of the Amazon rain forest to put a Bronx-spin on the old Chevrolet Caprice. “I came with hot pinks and turquoises, which also (emulate) the zoo.”
Matos, who painted the underpass at the main entrance to the Bronx Zoo for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s 100th anniversary in 1998, said this week’s project took him back to familiar days growing up in the borough.
“You know, 1980 Caprice takes you back to the old cabs of New York,” he said.
Another Bronx-born hip hop legend, Melvin (Grandmaster Melle Mel) Glover, recalled his early years growing up in the thencrime ridden Bronx, and said the zoo served as a place for him to escape.
“The people of the Bronx deserve a neighborhood instead of a ’hood,” he said. “What we’re trying to do with the zoo is, we’re trying to elevate everything to another level.”
Mel, 56, the original vocalist on Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s iconic Grammy Hall of Fame tune “The Message,” said the animal haven still holds a special place in his heart.
“I used to live where Marmion Ave. is. We used to go to the zoo, pack a lunch,” he said. “You’d see animals from all other parts of the world. The way they had it set up, it’s almost like you went there, you went overseas or you went to Africa, or you went to Australia. That was the beauty of it, just to see something other than what we grew up with.”
Caz, 56, who has been credited with much of the lyrics to the Sugarhill Gang’s 1980s hit “Rapper’s Delight,” grew up in the South Bronx, not far from Melle Mel.
The hip hop extraordinaire left his native borough just once, to live in L.A., but he stayed only two years before returning to the Big Apple.
“Hip Hop hit me as a kid and I jumped on the cultural bandwagon, like a lot of us did, and I’ve been riding it ever since,” he said. “It’s like my life has come full circle, where now I’m performing at the zoo.”
Boogie Down at the Bronx Zoo programs run weekends from May 5 to June 3. Sign up to receive event alerts at https://bronxzoo.com/ boogie-down.