Hip Hop Museum?
According to SOHH.com, Harlem will soon be host to a fantastic Hip Hop event. The Global Artist Coalition (GAC) is bringing their Hip Hop Exhibition Tour to the Magic Johnson Theatre on Frederick Douglass Blvd and 125th Street. The exhibit will run from October 12th through the 17th and “will feature performances, interactive exhibits and artifacts, including rare hip-hop handbills and snapshots of the emerging rap scene by photojournalist Jamel Shabazz.”
This sounds like a great event that I will definitely support, but it makes me think of something. Why is there no permanent, Hip Hop exhibit/museum in Harlem? From Diddy to Ma$e (for better or worse), from Big L to Cannibal Ox, Harlem has contributed heavily to hip hop culture. There should be an official recognition of that somewhere in the neighborhood. Maybe there is one, but it’s on the low and I haven’t heard of it. Anyone out there know of anything?
I mean, is there even one in Brooklyn? Biggie, Jigga, Kane, Bootcamp Clik, Mos Def and Kewli …
The Bronx? Boogie Down Productions, Terror Squad ….
Queens? Run DMC, Kool G Rap, Beatnuts …
Staten Island? Wu-Tang, … yeah that’s it 
The list goes on and on …
REEF is a contributing writer to UPTOWN flavor. He is a Jersey boy trying to make it in a Harlem World. Reef welcomes comments at shareef[at]gmail.com. For more Reefy goodness, check out his blog.
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typical response to an organization of color – many many white not for profits have been given a pass but not an organization of color like Mother Hale’s House and the Black United Fund of NY. For the last 5 years Eliot Spitzer has used our organizations as his personal punching bag. That said it still begs of us to have our sh– together so that a simple thing like incorporating a new organization vs. trying to funnel money into that old 501 3(c) YOU GOT BACK 10yrs ago and never paid any taxes on wont come back to bite you in your butt and affect the community negatively.
This is what happened just recently in the Bronx:
MIKE HAS MIND ON RAP MUSEUM’S MONEY
By DAVID SEIFMAN
September 3, 2006 — The Bloomberg administration is abruptly stopping funds to a Bronx nonprofit that has just been awarded $4.5 million by the City Council for a multi-use building that includes a hip-hop museum, The Post has learned.
Sources said the Department of Small Business Services is blocking $335,000 of another $355,000 grant to the Northeast Bronx Redevelopment Corp. For “commercial revitalization” because an audit uncovered “unsatisfactory performance.”
“The money is frozen,” declared one city official.
He said the group’s Vendex form – the financial background questionnaire every city contractor has to fill out – would be red-flagged, effectively preventing Northeast Bronx from receiving any further contracts.
The council made its award in June. An audit was completed last week. The official declined to provide any details of the audit, but the state Attorney General’s office said Northeast Bronx hasn’t filed tax forms for the last decade.
Brad Maione, a spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, said the last filing on record was for 1997.
“They’ll be getting a letter telling them to file,” he said.
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