{"id":361100,"date":"2026-09-30T20:02:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T20:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/361100\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T20:02:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T20:02:46","slug":"nas-and-nyc-mayor-celebrate-the-bronx-school-of-hip-hop-in-new-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/361100\/","title":{"rendered":"Nas and NYC Mayor Celebrate the Bronx School of Hip-Hop in New Video"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who would\u2019ve thought hip-hop would take it this far? Earlier this month,\u00a0New York City launched the Bronx School of Hip-Hop<\/a> with an inaugural freshman class of about 100 students. Now, Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a>\u2019s office\u00a0has released a video documenting the high school\u2019s opening, featuring founding principal Jason Reyes and rappers including Nas<\/a>, Melle Mel, and Fat Joe. Watch it below.<\/p>\n

Nas was not at the school on its first day, but he spoke about the significance of hip-hop\u2019s birth 53 years ago during a sitdown with the rapper-turned-NYC mayor. \u201cHip-hop unveils the truth. Hip-hop tells you exactly what your city looks like, sounds like, feels like,\u201d the Queens native explained. \u201cIt was an outcry from people who demanded things to change and to tell the world what we were going through. And that came from a city that was going through a whole lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Providing insight into how the school can improve the city, one of Mamdani\u2019s Top 5 favorite rappers<\/a>\u00a0continued, \u201cI know so many people from [my] neighborhood that has so much potential, but there was nothing showing them a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Video<\/p>\n

Marking the first of its kind in New York City, the school will likely produce more than its fair share of rappers, but its project-based curriculum intends to increase students\u2019 engagement by tying all the core subjects to the five elements of hip-hop.<\/p>\n

MCing will foster students\u2019 English Language Arts (ELA) and communication skills, DJing teaches math and technology, graffiti develops design and literacy, breakdancing examines science and health, and knowledge of self nurtures critical thinking.<\/p>\n

Further demonstrating that he just\u00a0gets it, Mamdani closed the video by saying, \u201cTo keep writing, to keep creating, to keep dreaming. It\u2019s also a reminder of what the city has to be. We have to forever be hungry. We can\u2019t be content with having been the birthplace of hip-hop. We want it to still be the home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bronx School of Hip-Hop is just one of the new schools that opened across the city this year, including the Bronx School of Arts & Exploration and three other schools in Queens.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: Revisit all of our 2023 coverage of hip-hop\u2019s 50th anniversary<\/a>, including the best hip-hop albums<\/a> and best hip-hop songs<\/a> of all time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who would\u2019ve thought hip-hop would take it this far? Earlier this month,\u00a0New York City launched the Bronx School…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-361100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}