Music museum and cafe will open this year

A neighborhood that birthed hip-hop heavyweights including Q-Tip, Doug E Fresh and Mase will soon be the backdrop for a museum dedicated to its musical roots.

The Hip Hop Hall of Fame will open a café and museum gallery dedicated to hip-hop in Harlem music later this year, while a massive 20-story museum devoted to the genre, which is slated to cost $150 million, will open in Manhattan in 2023, according to a news release. The Hip Hop Hall of Fame is a nonprofit that aims to preserve and conduct research on the socioeconomic and cultural impact of hip-hop music.

ExploreA 20-story hip-hop museum will open in this music mecca

The first phase of the new project is slated to include a café and museum gallery devoted to “civil rights, socioeconomic empowerment” and hip-hop history, according to a news release from the organization. The official Hip Hop Café will offer job opportunities and revitalization to the Harlem community. Both will open later this year once the COVID-19 vaccine is widely available.

“(At the café) the menu will honor past and present hip hop legends & icons and celebrities as we celebrate their legacies with memorabilia and interactive exhibits,” John Banks, Hip Hop Hall of Fame spokesperson, said in a statement.

The gallery will open with a themed “Hip Hop Activism & Black Lives Matter Visual Arts and Music” exhibition that will “engage visitors with a series of impactful presentations on hip-hop music ... and activists who have been at the forefront of the new civil rights and community socio-economic empowerment movement.”

The second phase, which is planned for construction in Manhattan, will be a 20-story museum, hotel and retail complex. It is on track to break ground later this year and open in 2023.

James “JT” Thompson, who founded the Hip Hop Hall of Fame in 1996, has been working to bring the hip-hop museum and complex to life for several years, according to an interview Thompson gave to the New York Post.

“This has been a labor of love. It’s had its valleys, mountains, peaks and falloffs,” Thompson told the Post in reference to halted museum plans after the deaths of Tupac and Notorious B.I.G.

Pending the successful fundraising campaign for the museum, Thompson will see the fruits of his labor after nearly 30 years.

“Hip-hop is about empowering yourself, moving beyond the music,” he told the Post. “The HHHOF and I have a duty and responsibility to preserve this rich history of music and culture.”

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Stephanie Toone

Stephanie has been telling stories her whole life. Her interest in the written word started with short stories and journal entries about run-ins with classroom bullies as a child and matured to writing for her high school newspaper over the years. She has written and edited for The Tennessean, Augusta Chronicle and American City & County.

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