Earlier this week, N.W.A was snubbed in their bid to be the fifth rap act inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. It looks like there will soon be a more natural place to enshrine musicians like the Compton legends.
In 2017, The Hip Hop Hall of Fame is scheduled to open in two locations, one in Harlem and another down the road in Midtown Manhattan. "This will be the home of hip hop history,” said the project's organizer JT Thompson, who produced BET's Hip Hop Hall of Fame awards show in nineties.
According to Thompson, they are going to break ground on the 12,000 square foot space in Harlem this summer and then the 50,000 square foot space in Midtown after that.
The sites will include memorabilia donated by Hip Hop figures like Run-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Outkast, Jeezy, Common, Eminem, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataam. They will also offer interactive tours. The project will cost $80 million, and Thompson says he has raised $50 million so far.
There has been discussions of building a Hip Hop Hall Of Fame for 20 years, but so far none of the projects have made it out of the planning.