“Hip hop is one of those things that really gave my life meaning,” LL Cool J, perhaps the greatest of them all, stated during the ceremony that included Nas, Lil Kim, Fat Joe, Grandmaster Flash, Slick Rick, EMPD, Naughty By Nature, and other superstars and trailblazers.
Sylvester Zawadzki photo
Ground was recently broken in the Bronx for the long-proposed Universal Hip Hop Museum. The ceremony attracted many music legends including Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy’s Chuck D, Fat Joe, LL Cool J, Nas and Slick Rick, who were among the many hip-hop legends present at Bronx Point, adjacent to the Harlem River.
“Hip hop is one of those things that gave my life meaning. It made me dream, you know what I’m saying?” noted recent inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, LL Cool J. “Hip hop made me believe that anything was possible. It was the first time that I heard young Black men sound empowered. Most of the time when I saw young Black men, they were, like, putting their heads down being put in a police car. This was, like, the first time where I felt like, ‘Wow. It’s possible to be powerful. It’s possible to be somebody.’”
Nas, LL Cool J, Slick Rick, and Fat Joe were a few of the hip-hop icons present at Thursday's groundbreaking of the Universal Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx