Hip Hop Landmark for Sale

Photo: Getty Images via New York Magazine

You might not be familiar with the address 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, but if you’re a hip hop fan, you can thank it for your iTunes library (maybe). The unassuming, 100-unit building used to be home to hip hop legend, DJ Kool Herc. Specifically, the community room at 1520 Sedgwick housed what most consider to be some of the first hip hop parties. Many legends passed through that little community room and the tracks DJ Kool Herc was spinning in the early 70’s often turned up at parties in parks and on the streets. Back in the days of blockbuster block parties, the system and the sounds were all that mattered once you plugged the 1’s and 2’s into the nearest streetlamp.

Today, the building is up for sale (possibly converting to condos eventually) and the working class residents in the building are actually trying to use the building’s hip hop history as a reason to not only preserve the building, but to keep it affordable. They are trying to come up with the funds to buy the building.

Click here to read more about this.  The comments on the story are actually more interesting than the article itself.