Bronx looks to capitalize on hip-hop heritage
NEW YORK — In the 1970s, DJs, dancers, graffiti artists and the first rappers came together in the burned-out buildings of the Bronx, giving birth to hip-hop.
Today, hip-hop is a multibillion-dollar industry and the Bronx is on the mend, but New York’s northernmost borough is struggling to capitalize on its heritage.
Hip-hop began at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue on the twotone linoleum floor of a ground-floor room in an anonymous brick house, under an impromptu neon light.
There on August 11, 1973, Clive Campbell — nicknamed Kool Herc — mashed together snippets of recordings on two turntables and, without knowing it, became the first hip-hop DJ. Coke La Rock became the first M Ca she delivered spoken-wordlyrics over the music.
Hip-hop culture — with its mix of DJing, rapping, graffiti and dance — has gone on to become a global phenomenon.
The Bronx has restored several emblematic sites including Cedar Playground, the scene of the first open-air hiphop parties, and the Bronx River Community Center, where pioneering DJ Afrika Bambaataa had his start.
The early days of hip-hop have also been dramatized in a television series, The Get Down, which premiered in August.
But little of the giant hiphop industry now comes out of or benefits the Bronx, which despite recent growth remains less prosperous than glamorous Manhattan or fast-growing Brooklyn.
A plan to create a hip-hop museum in the Bronx has repeatedly been proposed but has not come to fruition.
Rocky Bucano, a businessman and producer behind the Universal Hip Hop Museum, has since teamed up to create a foundation to support the project, enlisting several figures from the first generation of hip-hop including Kurtis Blow.
The current plan calls for a complex over several acres on the Harlem River, which separates the Bronx and Harlem. Alongside the museum will be businesses, green space and affordable housing.
Bucano said he has received support from several city and state elected leaders and, if the city government gives the green light, he will seek support from “the companies that have benefited from the exploitation of rap music.”
The museum will be “a beacon of economic activity for the borough that gave birth to hip-hop,” he said.
Debra Harris has found a growing market by bringing tourists to the Bronx to see hiphop history. Relatively few are US citizens as she sees more interest from visitors from Britain, France and Germany as well as Australia and Japan.
But the violent reputation of the Bronx remains such that, 15 years after she launched the tours, Harris starts her visits in Harlem so as not to scare people off.
“It’s all about Manhattan and now it’s about Brooklyn. Eventually the Bronx will catch up and people will start getting interest, but as long as there’s a level of fear, you may not feel comfortable going there,” she said.
Developers, for their part, have clearly seen the benefit of bringing a touch of hip-hop to a street of building.
BG 183, the alias of Sotero Ortiz of the graffiti collective Tats Cru, said that developers are constantly reaching out in hopes that a splash of spray paint can bring a badge of authenticity — as with a former factory in the Hunts Point neighborhood that will reopen as an office building months after its graffiti mural.
The irony is not lost on the Tats Cru, who for years had been dodging the police as they took their art to streets and trains and now are invited to art galleries.
“They were telling us: you can’t do this here, you’re going to get caught,” BG 183 said. “Now they’ re giving us awards .”
As long as there’s a level of fear, you may not feel comfortable going there.” Debra Harris, who runs hip-hop tours of the Bronx