The Univeral Hip Hop Museum gave us a sneak peek into the “[R]Evolution of Hip Hop Breakbeat Narratives” in collaboration with the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality and Microsoft.
The event took us through the history of Hip Hop curated by South Bronx legend Paradice Gray a Hip Hop historian and mentor to many pioneering DJs. The MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality in collaboration with Microsoft took us on an interactive journey through the history of Hip Hop using artifacts, multimedia, artificial intelligence, holograms, and virtual augmentation. Using artificial intelligence guests were asked questions regarding the type of music they liked or did not like, with this information we were provided with specially crafted playlist guaranteed to leave you bumping. Through various artifacts collected from as early as the ’70s we were educated on the rich and vibrant history of Hip hop and all that transpired around it, from clothing worn by the notorious Zulu Nation to flyers for the first Hip Hop tour to the west. The event focused on the 5 core elements of Hip Hop culture MCing, Breakdancing, Aerosol Art and Knowledge represented as graphic avatars. During the month of December, the event is also celebrating the 40th anniversary of Kurtis Blow’s hit song “Christmas Rappin” paying tribute to his 40-year history in Hip Hop
The event serves as a precursor to the Universal Hip Hop Museum, which breaks ground at the Bronx Point in 2020 and is scheduled to open in 2023 in celebration of Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary.