Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow and Melle Mel are among those set to be honored by New York city council tomorrow (March 12), according to Bronx Councilman Fernando Cabrera.
The Hip Hop culture pioneers are among those who will receive official proclamations, Cabrera said according to a Daily News story.
The ceremonial presentation is scheduled to begin at 12:30 pm EST tomorrow in New York City Hall Council Chambers at 260 Broadway (near Warren St.) New York, NY 10007.
In 2012, Afrika Bambaataa was appointed visiting scholar at Cornell University. According to Cornell.edu, Cornell University Library’s Hip Hop Collection appointed Bambaataa as a visiting scholar for a three-year term. In the role, he will visit the Ithaca, New York campus several days each year to “meet with classes, talk to student and community groups, and perform.” This marks the first faculty appointment of a Hip Hop pioneer at a major university.
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One of the first commercially successful rappers, Kurtis Blow said during a 2011 interview that films played an integral role in popularizing the term “Hip Hop,” even though it began on a more grassroots level. “They started calling it Hip Hop after the first couple of movies were being made like Beat Street,” he said. “The phrase was coined back then but we also have the great Lovebug Starski and Keith Cowboy – R.I.P. – who were two MCs who actually came up with the term before the records, but the name actually caught on after the movies came out.”
In 2012, Rolling Stone magazine named Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message” as the greatest Hip Hop song of all time. Melle Mel was the primary performer on “The Message.”
A posthumous proclamation will also be given tomorrow to Pete (DJ) Jones, who died in January.
“Pete gave many of the pioneers of hip-hop culture a platform to showcase their talent,” Cabrera’s office said in an announcement of the event.
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