City Council Spends $1.5 Million For ‘Hip-Hop Museum' in Bronx

By RUSSELL BERMAN, Staff Reporter of the Sun
July 7, 2006

The City Council has quietly allocated $1.5 million in capital funding over the next two years that will serve as seed money for a hip-hop museum in the northeast section of the Bronx.

The funding came at the behest of a City Council member, Larry Seabrook, who is closely allied with a nonprofit group in his district that is planning a community center and housing development at the corner of 212th Street and White Plains Road. The museum would be part of the project.

Mr. Seabrook said he envisions the museum as a forum to educate future generations about the hip-hop movement as it began on the streets of the Bronx in the 1970s, long before the genre became linked with turf wars and lyrics that advocated violence against women. "We're not talking about gangster rap," Mr. Seabrook said. "We're talking about hip-hop."

While the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., announced plans earlier this year for a permanent hip-hop exhibition, the project in the Bronx is believed to be the first museum dedicated to the movement.

Bronx leaders often cite the borough's label as the birthplace of hip-hop as a source of pride, but like Mr. Seabrook they are equally quick to dissociate themselves from present-day hip-hop culture and the antics of rap stars like Lil' Kim, the Game, and 50 Cent. Hip-hop's image, they say, has been tarnished by the recent hijinks of two local radio stations, Hot 97 and Power 105.1. Hot 97 is facing eviction proceedings after a spate of shootings and fights at its Greenwich Village headquarters, and Power 105.1 was forced to fire its morning show host, Star, after his on-the-air threats to perform sex acts on the 4-year-daughter of a rival DJ.

Members of the council's black, Latino, and Asian caucus have repeatedly criticized the radio stations and their corporate parents. The caucus ultimately secured the funding for the hip-hop museum, and members acknowledged that the recent controversies had factored into discussions over whether to provide public money for the project.

One of the most vocal critics of the radio stations, Council Member John Liu of Queens, is backing the appropriation.

"It is precisely the crap that goes on at Hot 97 and Power 105 that is the reason we need a way to memorialize what hip-hop really is, and not this commercial bastardization that has occurred," he said.

Other lawmakers criticized the use of public funds for a hip-hop museum. "I'm the biggest LL Cool J fan in the council, but this is not a proper use of taxpayer money," the council's Republican leader, James Oddo of Staten Island, said. He added that he supported a hip-hop museum, but only as a private venture. "If this is such a great idea, then it sells itself," he said.

The funding allotment was buried in the back of a 200-page listing of capital projects that the council passed as part of the annual budget last week. Mr. Seabrook's museum initiative came as news to other Bronx leaders, including the man known as the "hip-hop assemblyman," Ruben Diaz Jr. Mr. Diaz represents parts of the south Bronx and has long talked privately about building a hip-hop museum in his district, which spawned pioneers Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. Mr. Diaz said he has "mixed feelings" about the project occurring elsewhere. "But it was Larry Seabrook who came up with the money, so I tip my hat to him," he said.

Despite the start-up cash from the city, a hip-hop museum in the Bronx still faces a number of obstacles. Early plans call for the museum to occupy one or two floors of a multi-purpose center being built by the nonprofit Northeast Bronx Redevelopment Corporation. The group is hoping to combine several floors of low- to moderate-income housing with a gymnasium, a small theater, a recording studio, and the museum.

The project is planned for the site of an abandoned transfer station that the group acquired from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority this spring. The corporation has also received more than $1 million in state funding to clean up the site, which Mr. Seabrook said could take up to two years.

Neither Mr. Seabrook nor the developers could put a total cost on the project, which they said is "in the very early stages" and does not even have an architect attached to it.

Whatever the cost, the content of the museum is sure to face intense scrutiny. The hip-hop star Grandmaster Caz, whose real name is Curtis Brown, applauded the idea of a museum but said the movement's pioneers should be involved in planning and design. "I think we need to have some kind of input," he said.