Black Music Month: Hip Hop Museum

This Black Music Month, journalist Esther Dillard spotlights a long-awaited milestone in hip hop history: the future home of the Hip Hop Museum in the South Bronx. Set to open in 2026, this cultural landmark will celebrate the genre’s evolution — from local Bronx block parties to a global movement that redefined music, fashion, and politics.

Led by veteran music executive Rocky Bucano, the museum will honor pioneers like Nas, Roxanne Shanté, and LL Cool J, while also investing in the next generation through youth programs that blend hip hop with literacy, science, and entrepreneurship.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Esther Dillard on your Home for Black News First,
the Black Information Network.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
What we're going to do right here is go back,
way back back into time.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
For Black Music Month. We want to remind you hip
hop is history, hip hop is culture, and now hip
hop is building a home, a museum in its birthplace,
the Bronx, New York. The visionary behind it.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
My name is Rocky Buchano. I am the CEO of
the Hip Hop Museum. I've been in the music business
for over fifty years. I've seen hip hop's complete evolution
from before it was even known as hip hop to
where it is today and today is contemporary music scene
and art scene. So I've been one of those few

(00:41):
figures that really understands the transformational impact that this culture
has had, not just locally but internationally as well. So
everyone no matter who you are, when they come to
this museum, when they walk inside and see the different exhibitions,
whether it's about the oor Jens of hip hop, or

(01:01):
the story of Kendrick Lamar, or how Harry Belafonte is starting,
you know, producing the movie Beach Street and that becoming
a you know, one of the first big hip hop films.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Rocky says he's doing this because hip hop needs it,
a permanent place to honor a culture that rose from
nothing and now influences everything fashion, film, television, sports, and entertainment.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
We are located in the South Bronx, in the Mott
Haven section of the Bronx, just five blocks south of
Yankee Stadium. We are part of a mixed use development
project that is called the Bronx Point, which includes five
hundred and forty two units of one hundred percent affordable housing.
We are intentionally designing the space so that all ages

(01:48):
will feel very comfortable inside the museum, whether you're you know,
in elementary school or you're a PhD, you know, getting
ready to get your doctorate. Most importantly, you will feel
connected to it because hip hop has been around for
fifty two plus years. It's the original American cultural export

(02:10):
that was started by black and brown teenage agers right
here in the Bronx and has now become this cultural phenomenon.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
The museum is still in the design phase, but the
plan is to open in twenty twenty six. So far
they have around thirty thousand artifacts to put inside the
new space. But Rocky's asking you, yeah, you listening. If
you've got hip hop history in your closet, garage, or
photo album, he wants to see it.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
As big as our collection is, we still need more.
You may have a picture of Snoop Dog, you know
your high school yearbook. You may be in Jersey and
we're looking at posters that had Queen Latifa and Naughty
by Nature. We want to know what you have, so
you know, our job as a museum is to make

(02:57):
sure that our stories that we're telling everyone we open
the museum are supported by the most iconic hip hop
artifacts and memorabilia that the world wants to see.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
South Fraud, South South Sound prad South South Bro. I'm
Esther Dillard on your Home for Black News First the
Black Information Network