Bronx, New York Honored By Smithsonian For Innovation In Hip Hop

    The Bronx, New York will be honored by the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center in Washington, D.C. as a “hot spot” of innovation in the spring of 2015. This is because of the inventions and innovation that helped build the foundation of Hip Hop in the 1970s. 

    The Bronx will be featured in this exhibit along with Hollywood, California and Silicon Valley, California. Laurel Fritzsch, curator for the Bronx portion of this exhibit, explained the reasoning for honoring the borough. 

    “We wanted to show that it’s not just a single inventor who creates something, but really a community that creates the right recipe for an invention,” Fritzsch stated, in the NY Daily News. “The Bronx (in the 1970s) is an interesting contrast to Silicon Valley, which is kind of the stereotypical example. Inventors in the Bronx had a lot of hands-on skills and were able to apply that in ways that led to the creation of these innovative sound systems.”

    The exhibit will also honor pioneers of the culture. Grandmaster Flash, DJ Kool Herc and Grand Wizzard Theodore will all be highlighted. Flash will be honored for the crossfader, Herc for his use of Jamaican sound systems and Theodore for scratching. 

    Aside from pioneers, the exhibit will also feature important historical pieces. Visitors can expect to find Hip Hop posters, video clips and boomboxes. Visitors will also be able to see vinyl records and they’ll even have an opportunity to scratch and mix. 

    “I think it’s really cool that they’re doing something like this,” Grand Wizzard Theodore said in the paper. “People need to know the history behind it all.”

    The Bronx is home to many emcees including KRS-One, Sadat X and Big Pun

    The “Places of Invention” exhibit will be open to the public in spring of 2015. The Lemelson Center is a part of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. It is meant to showcase “the study of invention and innovation.” This will not be the first time the Smithsonian has featured Hip Hop. In 2008, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery featured Hip Hop

    RELATED: Hip Hop Culture On Display At The Smithsonian

    12 thoughts on “Bronx, New York Honored By Smithsonian For Innovation In Hip Hop

      1. saving hip hop !!!! HA, lil wayne is not hip hop he’s hip pop( a rapper). hip hop is a culture that consist of five elements: b-boying, MC’ ing, DJ’ing, graffiti tagging, and knowledge.

      1. It would be truly hard to explain the depth and the connection between Hip Hop in New Orleans goes way back to the late 18 hundreds with the Mardi Gras Indians.They chant in rhymes over African drums basically rapping gangsta shit and still do till this day. But thats to deep for the average person to handle. So I give credit to New York for producing our modern version and truly defining the genre.

        http://www.souleuphoric.com

        https://soundcloud.com/soul-euphoric/uptown

    1. “hip hop is a culture that consist of five elements: b-boying, MC’ ing, DJ’ing, graffiti tagging, and knowledge”

      Hip Hop used to be a culture. Now it’s a business. Stop living in the past and understand the present.

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