[Applause] what happens at the intersection of hip-hop culture and architecture I've dedicated my entire academic and professional careers to exploring this intersection before we look at hip hop being combined with architecture I I think it's important that we explore how black culture has transformed other art movements throughout time I call this before and after hipop here's the E chair before hipop here's the E chair after hip-hop here's Mona Lisa before hipop and here's Mona Lisa after hip-hop where an artist took hip-hop artists and painted them in the same light light and medium as Mona Lisa here's NBA shorts before hip hop which is nothing but a mistake waiting to happen and here's basketball shorts after hip-hop here's headphones before hip-hop and we made those headphones into beats here's a record player before hip hop which we turned into an industry here's Timberland boots before hip hop a boot that is worn by contractors people on construction sites who needed to protect their toes and here's boots after hip hop I don't even need to change the image Timberland boots became so synonymous with hip hop it was a fashion statement for our feet and to have dirty Tims was blasphemy the moment we got a scuff or any piece of dirt the timberin were no longer usable and that's just on the surface about how black Black Culture is transformative let's take a second to think a little deeper poo Picasso Swiss architect Le kabier were heavily influenced by Black Culture they called themselves negr filcs which was their way of describing their infatuation with Black Culture I'm sure many of you have heard of Jay-Z's Black Album but how many of you have heard of Pablo Picasso's black period during this period of negr filia Pablo Picasso was heavily influenced by African tribal art he would study and create sketches of tribal mask and in his most famous piece the young ladies of Aenon he Incorporated those sketches into two of the young ladies faces this piece would become the most famous piece that Picasso would ever paint and it will become the first piece of cubism African art changed the way that Picasso saw the world and how he saw himself on the left there's a self-portrait Picasso made after the blue period and on the right is his self-portrait after the black period where he painted himself with features that you typically would attribute to Africans the stronger facial features and the large nose Picasso was heavily Changed by African tribal art and he would deny that influence for a long time but what else do you expect from a man who's famous for saying good artist copy and great artist still will we not know Picasso or cubism if not for his introduction to Black Culture architect l kaboer was literally in love with Black Culture he had an intimate relationship with the most famous Harlem Renaissance artist Josephine Baker during that relationship he developed an appreciation for black music specifically Jazz where he said negro music has touched America because it is The Melody of the Soul joined with the rhythm of the machine the music of the era of construction innovating it floods the body and heart it floods the USA and it floods the world jazz is more advanced than the architecture and if architecture was at the point reached by Jazz it would be an incredible spectacle kaboer noticed that jazz artists can come together without a plan and create something that had never been heard before because they have mastered the tools of their craft which allowed them to come together in harmony in such a spontaneous way and create beautiful music he wondered if Architects would ever Master our tools that allow people to come together and create architecture that had never been seen before he would go on to coin the term Art Deco which is an art and architecture movement that was heavily influenced by the Hara Renaissance Would we not know Art Deco if not for kabo 's introduction to Black Culture if kaboer could fantasize about this merger of black music and architecture and Pablo Picasso can transcend all the artists that were around him at that time by incorporating African tribal art why can't we constituents of Hip Hop culture black people bring our culture into new Arenas to create something that is totally new and unseen before and that's what hip-hop architecture is hip-hop architecture is a critique of modernism it's a critique of the style of architecture that birthed the culture leaber had a plan he had a plan to liberate the workingclass citizens of Paris and in his book The City of tomorrow and his planning kabier described the new modern town planning initiative that that would transcend everything that was out at the time he wanted to liberate the working class by providing them with amongst other things uh these five items I'm going to highlight he wanted to provide translucent prisms of glass these would be the buildings that will give people immediate access to employment and they would sit within vast Lawns which would surround the residents who are under the shade of trees with clean air and no noise his scheme would go on to be deemed Towers in a park it's nothing but Utopia the perfect world Paris was unsure of the social implications of this architecture and programming what will the social implications be upon the inhabitants of the spaces and because of that his plan was heavily criticized preventing it from ever being anything more than an idea for Paris but there came a man who would use his plan Robert Moses Robert Moses was a builder in New York and as he was building the Cross Bronx Expressway he would look to La caber's plan to not displace residents who were in the way of his construction but I call his implementation of kabu A's plan The Worst Remix or sample in history during the construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway he did not use any of the elements or amenities that kabu deemed necessary for such an architecture to be successful those translucent prisms of glass and vast Lawns will become concrete jungles the prisms of glass will become monotonous brick Towers this typology would become the typology that defined low-income housing Across the Nation 1520 Cedric Avenue is officially recognized by New York as the birthplace of Hip Hop 1520 Cedric Avenue was built at the suggestion of Robert Moses and it's based on Leake kier's plan that he created for the center of Peis now this is officially recognized at a birthplace of Hip Hop but if you talk to any hip hoppers you can have an interesting conversation about whether that's true or not hip-hop architecture brings design accountability Le kabier was a great architect but his architecture disproportionately affected people of color hip-hop brings accountability to kaboer I often call him the forefather of hip-hop culture now don't get it twisted this is not a compliment it's a criticism it tells us that his architecture is beyond bricks and mortar and that his architecture is the incubator of culture and it allows us to define the processes the planning the policies that made the hood what it is and stop people from using the cultural behaviors of people of color to describe why the hood exists I call hip hop postmodern hip hop is modernism's post occupancy report Hip Hop was born from modernism it lived in modernism and if anybody is going to give a post occupancy report it's going to be hip-hop song after song is filled with counterpoints and commentary about modern architecture hip hop is the voice of the voiceless it is the voice of the unconsoled endusers of public housing and modernism and if we can listen to the music we can understand just how unsuccessful this architecture was and we can understand the injustices that are faced by people of color who live in communities based on modernism remember those five points are brought up earlier such as the translucent prisms of glass and the vast Lawns Snoop Dogg and his song Life in a project said ain't no trees the grass ain't green and when I say it's all bad you know what I mean Grandmaster Flash took it a step further no prisms of glass here he said broken glass everywhere people pissing on the stairs you know they just don't care can't take the smell can't take the noise got no money to move out I guess I got no choice rats in the front room roaches in the back junkies in the alley with a baseball bat I tried to get away but I couldn't get far cuz a man would a we possess my car and what he's talking about here again is that architecture is beyond bricks and mortar architecture has an effect on the people who inhabit it he will go on in that chorus the chorus of the most famous hip-hop song ever created he would go on to say don't push me cuz I'm close to the edge I'm trying not to lose my head H H It's Like a Jungle Sometimes and make me wonder how I keep from going under and what he's talking about here is the psyche the psychological impact that this architecture was having and this chorus is in harmony with the critique of caber's plan that he received in Paris back in the 1920s this criticism said poor creatures what will they become in the midst of all this Dreadful speed this organization this terrible uniformity they were talking about the inhabitants of that architecture what will happen said here's enough to discuss One Forever with standardization and to make one long for disorder I deem this predict I deem this criticism a prediction of hip-hop culture almost 50 years before hip-hop culture was born in the Bronx and if you look at lyrics you can also see how psychology played a part in creating the hood shock G said I'm in a rage oh yeah why is that g because other races they say we act like rats in the cage I tried to argue but check it every night in the news we prove them stuckers right and I got the blues what was he talking about when he said they say we act like rats in a cage he was talking about sociologist JB Calhoun who studied rats and mice in concentrations of high density with controlled resources he would put these rats in towers and he noticed that the rats changed drastically he said that they were no longer rats because of how much they changed and people started to parallel his subjects to humans and said that if we continue to develop cities in manner in which we're doing it violence is an inevitable part of the inhabitants of these towers America ignored those warnings and still created this architecture that JB coun warned us about so it's no surprise that you get songs such as this from W wuang featuring StreetWise Street Chronicle wise words by the abomino high honorable rap quotable phenomenal seniority kid I speak for the minority ghetto poverty the Housing Authority this is what's starting to happen in hip hop and rap lyrics they're noticing that the environment is having an effect and if we can't listen to hip-hop and change the way that we design our cities hip hop is starting to encourage a new er of designers a new era of urban planners who can come and remedy the injustices faced by the people of color at the hands of modernism n said be boys and girls listen up you could be anything in the world in God we trust an architect doctor maybe an actress but nothing comes easy it takes much practice so Nas is encouraging people to become Architects to build our own communities and when we do that we can have design Justice Tiffany Brown is from Detroit she grew up in the housing projects in Detroit she would go on to get a master's degree in architecture in an MBA she would come back and demolish the very architecture the very housing projects from which she was born this is Justice this is what happens when we create opportunities for more minorities to become Architects designers and planners when you combine hip-hop culture and architect you get the cipher this is the new process that brings many people together where ideas can flow the design Cipher was a process I created when designing a universal hip-hop Museum in the Bronx where we brought together Architects urban planners Scholars students community members politicians and Hip-Hop Pioneers to create the architecture to create ideas for the universal hip hop Museum that will be in their community here are some of the designers and Architects that I had come these are my friends these are hip-hop Architects these are individuals I've grown up with individuals who have grown up on hip-hop culture we also had the legendary artist Curtis blow the sugar heel gang if you don't know hip hop deib to the hibit to the hip hip hop that's them we also have roxan Shante one of the first female MC's to join us and now people from the community hip-hop artists who were born of modernism born from Architects hands were now controlling the hands of The Architects they were the Architects they were designing their own experiences which will allow people to come and learn about hip-hop we joined with a sponsor Autodesk tinkercad who came and provided a training for the hip-hop artists and community members allowing them to not only write down words and draw sketches but create their own 3D models and print them out by the end of the third day they were holding their architecture in their hand my goal as I go around delivering this message to colleges and universities is to combat is to combat the low number which is 3% 3% of all architects in America are African-American it is my hope that this narrative will provide the Catalyst needed to increase that number and I will create an army of Hip Hop architects who will look to remedy the injustices faced by people of color at the hands of modernism thank you