Hip Hop Heavyweights Swizz Beatz & Doug E. Fresh Weigh In On New Hip-Hop Campus Coming To The Bronx

Photos by Paul LaSalle/Nicole Perrino

Kool DJ Red Alert, Swizz Beatz, Doug E. Fresh & Big Daddy Kane Honored At “Elements Awards” Where New Hip-Hop Campus Was Announced

It’s long been known as the birthplace of rap, but now the Bronx is getting ready for another major hip-hop milestone.

The Boogie Down will soon be the home to the nation’s first hip-hop based educational center, BOSSIP can reveal.

Windows of Hip-Hop – a nonprofit that advocates for hip-hop to be used as a teaching tool in the classroom – announced at its annual Element Awards Tuesday that it will open hip-hop’s first campus this year at Pier 132 along the South Bronx waterfront. Children will now be able to learn and grow though hip-hop at the center, where teachers like rap pioneers Grandmaster Caz and Melle Mel will educate students using the four elements of hip-hop: DJing, street art, emceeing and breakdancing.

And the rap heavyweights who were honored at the awards said they were thrilled with the news.

“I think it’s about time,” Swizz Beatz told BOSSIP. “But you know, all great things take time…Honestly to even be able to witness this in our lifetime, just from where hip-hop has started, to where it’s evolved to, to where it’s going – just to see all of the transitions. And now to have this campus, and we ain’t even get started yet.”

By Jennifer H. Cunningham

Swizz was among several honorees who were cited for their contributions to the hip-hop community. Also honored was Big Daddy Kane, Kool DJ Red Alert, Dougie Fresh and Fox 5 news reporter Lisa Evers.

But the new campus was the talk of the awards, and honoree Doug E. Fresh said it was special that Bronxites themselves pushed for – and got – the hip-hop campus, something that he had to do to advance his own career.

“I think the Bronx should be honored, it should be acknowledged,” the Human Beatboxer said. “Sometimes when you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. The first record that was a hit for me, was a record that I made myself. I put my own money up and did it myself because I didn’t like how other people were doing it. And that was the song, ‘La De Da De’…Sometimes you have to do it yourself.”

Hit the flip for more pics from the awards: