Eric Orr (r.), his mother and son, stand in front of the statue inspired by his comic book, “Rappin’ Max Robot” which will live in front of The Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx before it flies to Paris.
Photo ET Rodriguez
A longstanding hub of arts and culture, the Bronx continued to turn heads in 2024 with artists, institutions, and events celebrating its rich history while embracing its future. Seminal events included:
Bronx Music Hall opens in Melrose
The first newly-constructed concert venue in the Boogie Down in 50 years officially opened its doors in October with a flashy weekend of parties, concerts and events. The 14,000 square foot Bronx Music Hall and cultural center is part of the Bronx Commons, a mixed-use affordable housing development headed up by the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco), at 438 East 163rd Street.
Davon Russell, President of WHEDco, highlighted the vital role the new music venue plays in advancing the nonprofit’s vision for the community.
“This state-of-the-art venue is the centerpiece of WHEDco’s Bronx Commons development, embodying our belief that access to the arts is an essential element of thriving, vibrant communities,” Russell said. “We take immense pride in expanding cultural offerings in the Bronx, and we are deeply grateful to all of our supporters whose contributions have made this vision a reality.”
The venue boasts a 250-seat performance hall, a grand lobby and exhibition hall, rehearsal spaces, classrooms, and an outdoor amphitheater and plaza. It also serves as the new home of the Bronx Music Heritage Center (BMHC), founded in 2010 to support Bronx artists and provide free cultural programming for the community.
Bodega raves carve out space for Bronx nightlife
Also out to revitalize music venues in the borough, local DJ and producing trio, MUNDO began hosting secret bodega raves this summer out of Port Morris to keep Bronx music lovers dancing in their own borough. After years of working in the scene, Chris Veras, Emilio Guari Quiñones, and Rich Pascasio noticed there were few spaces for music and nightlife in the Bronx. In 2018 they formed MUNDO and aimed to create space for themselves and other Bronxites to gather and dance.
“I want to take over the world with our music and show people the Bronx is Mecca,” Pascasio told the Bronx Times.
The group’s music is reflective of their name, MUNDO taking inspiration from the Caribbean, Egypt, South Africa, Middle Eastern countries and beyond to create a diverse, “global” sound that MUNDO said matches the diversity of the borough. Tickets are on sale now for the groups New Years Eve warehouse rave through their instagram account @mundonewyork.
Hip Hop Statue brings the Bronx to Paris
A piece of the Bronx headed to Paris this year as the Olympics officially added breaking, also known as breakdancing, to the summer games lineup.
Breaking isn’t the only Bronx art making its way to the City of Lights. In August, an 18-foot-tall, 7,000-pound steel statue of Eric Orr’s hip-hop comic book creation, Rappin’ Max Robot, was unveiled outside the future home of The Hip Hop Museum (THHM), which is scheduled to open at 610 Exterior St. in 2025. This massive tribute to hip-hop culture will travel to Paris in the summer of 2025 as a gift from the borough where it all began.
In 1973 DJ Kool Herc first created the “break” at a party in the Bronx by extending musical drumbeats using a turntable. The beats spurred the signature style of dance that grew into the athletic and at times acrobatic breaking competitions of today.
The Rappin’ Max Robot statue is a nod to the legacy of hip hop and breaking, rooted in the Bronx. The towering statue, originally unveiled in Brooklyn in July, was built by Welder Underground, the apprenticeship program of Collab, a fabrication studio in Brooklyn.
For Orr, Rappin’ Max Robot’s creator, it was a full-circle moment.
“To see it in front of The Hip Hop Museum (THHM), back in the Bronx where it belongs, where this whole thing kind of started, it’s monumental,” Orr said.
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