1520 Sedgwick Avenue

1520 Sedgwick Avenue
Front of the building.
General information
Status	Complete
Type	Residential
Location	The Bronx, New York City, New York
Country	United States
Completed	1967
Technical details
Floor area	119,919 square feet (11,140.8 m2)

1520 Sedgwick Avenue is a 102-unitapartment building in the Morris Heights neighborhood in the Bronx, New York City. Recognized as a long-time "haven for working class families," in 2010 The New York Times reported that it is the accepted birthplace of hip hop. After a long period of neglect and shady dealings in the 1990s and 2000s the building has been "highlighted by elected officials and tenant advocates as an emblem of New York’s affordable housing crisis." Senator Charles E. Schumer called the building "the birthplace of predatory equity", and Representative José E. Serrano, speaking of the building's recent purchase, called it, "such a visible building."

On July 5, 2007, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue was recognized by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation as the birthplace of hip hop.

The creation of the Cross Bronx Expressway uprooted thousands in the Bronx during the early 1970s, displacing communities, and fostering white flight. 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, which received its first mortgage in 1967, is located on the Expressway.

1520 Sedgwick Avenue has been called "an otherwise unremarkable high-rise just north of the Cross Bronx Expressway and hard along the Major Deegan Expressway." As hip hop grew throughout the Bronx, 1520 was a starting point where Clive Campbell, later known as DJ Kool Herc, presided over parties in the community room at a pivotal point in the genre's history.

DJ Kool Herc is credited with helping to start hip hop and rap music at a house concert at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue on August 11, 1973. At the concert he was DJing and emceeing in the recreation room of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. Sources have noted that while 1520 Sedgwick Avenue was not the actual birthplace of hip hop – the genre developed slowly in several places in the 1970s – it was verified to be the place where one of the pivotal and formative events occurred that spurred hip hop culture forward. During a rally to save the building, DJ Kool Herc said, "1520 Sedgwick is the Bethlehem of Hip-Hop culture."