The 2024 Olympic games in Paris concluded on Sunday, Aug. 11, and for the first time ever, breaking was part of the competition.
What started as a form of dance and personal expression in the streets of the South Bronx has become a globally renowned sport with tournaments worldwide. With generous sponsorship from ESAB, a leader in welding and cutting equipment and consumables, NYC is gifting a statue to Paris to mark this historic milestone. But before it travels overseas, Bronxites can see the towering statue for themselves.
From the pages of the first-ever hip hop comic book, written by Eric Orr in 1986, to the streets of the Boogie Down Bronx and finally to the streets of Paris, Rappin’ Max Robot is alive and standing 18 feet tall.
“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 told the Bronx Times.
Built by Welder Underground, the apprenticeship program of Collab, an innovation and fabrication lab in Brooklyn, Rappin’ Max and his boombox were forged of 7,000 pounds of steel. With one foot on his radio and one hand on his hip, Max embodies the B-Boy attitude. He was first unveiled in Brooklyn on July 25, where he received his first antennae in front of hundreds armed with welding masks. On Saturday, Aug. 10, his second antennae was attached in front of a crowd outside the not-yet-opened hip-hop museum along Exterior Street by Mill Pond Park.
Hip hop music carried through the air as Pete Nice, co-curator of THHM and hip hop historian, served as the master of ceremonies. He called on Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson to share some words, and in a surprise turn of events, she granted the museum a $1 million check.
“I assured the residents of this borough and my elected officials that I would do any and everything possible to keep supporting the museum — because I realize what it means for not just this generation, but for generations to come,” said Gibson.
The BP also announced a new STEAM school to open at the Hutchinson Metro Center in Pelham Bay. The two-million-square-foot school is slated to open next year and will focus on science, technology, engineering, architecture and math.
“And I’m adding a second “m” for music,” Gibson told the cheering crowd under the hot summer sun. “I want to make sure that we are elevating the next B-boy, the next B-girl, the next DJ, the next VJ, the next rapper, the engineer, the producer.”
The school will take in a few hundred students and serve as a program for high school juniors and seniors to gain real-world experience, with the hope of catapulting them into careers centered in the STEAM sector.
Hip hop is said to have started in the streets of the South Bronx in 1973, although several people will argue its origins. But one thing they do agree on is that breaking started in the Boogie Down when DJ Kool Herc introduced the “break” – a technique created on a turntable that accentuated the drum beat and allowed for breaking to flourish into the worldwide sport it is today.
Rappin’ Max Robot will live at Mill Pond Park until it is delivered to the Place de la Bataille-de-Stalingrad in Paris next summer. According to a spokesperson with the project, the subway line at the Stalingrad Plaza is under repair and will not be completed until next year which gives Rappin’ Max enough time to undertake his NYC odyssey.
“We’ve gotten a few requests [to tour him],” said Adina Levin, who is the co-founder of Collab, along with her husband Marc Levin, who also created the giant boombox as part of THHM’s “R[E]volution of Hip Hop” exhibit in 2022.
After celebrating Rappin’ Max, the group took the party to the Bronx Brewery in Port Morris to watch the final day of the breaking competition. Both France and Team USA took home medals, both for the men’s division. France took home silver, and the U.S. took home bronze.
When he finally arrives in France, Max’s boombox will be activated and music from THHM will flood the streets of Paris in hopes that the youth of the city will continue the breaking tradition and keep hip hop alive.
Reach ET Rodriguez at etrodriguez317@gmail.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
