Hip Hop and Cannabis in the Bronx: A Culture Map for the Birthday Month
From 1520 Sedgwick to the Big Pun mural to equity-licensed dispensaries, the culture the Bronx built is still building.
Key takeaways
- Hip hop was born Aug. 11, 1973, at 1520 Sedgwick Ave; it's a residential building, so view from outside.
- The Universal Hip Hop Museum's full opening moved to spring 2027; its Culture Lab is open Wed–Sat.
- 74% of Bronx dispensaries hold CAURD equity licenses, the highest share of any borough.
- CONBUD, Bronx Joint and Two Buds tie the legal market to the communities prohibition hit.
On August 11, 1973, DJ Kool Herc got on the turntables at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, and the Bronx gave the world a new language. Today, hip hop turns 53. The culture that started in a West Bronx apartment building now fills stadiums, museums and, yes, the shelves of the borough's legal dispensaries.
Cannabis and hip hop have grown up side by side. Weed slang, weed imagery and weed rituals have run through rap for decades. So has the other side of that story: the arrests, the records and the neighborhoods that paid for a plant that is now sold legally three blocks from The Hub. In the Bronx, those two histories meet on the same streets.
Here's a birthday-month culture map for adults 21+: where to pay respect, who's building equity in the legal market, and what's on the calendar.
The Landmarks: Where to Pay Respect
1520 Sedgwick Avenue
The birthplace of hip hop is still a residential building, which means people live there. View it from the sidewalk, take your photo, and keep it moving. It is a pilgrimage site, not a hangout, and it is certainly not a place to light up in front of someone's home.
The Big Pun Mural, Rogers Place and Westchester Avenue
In Longwood, near the Intervale Avenue station on the 2 and 5, Tats Cru's tribute to Big Pun has become a gathering place for fans. Christopher Ríos, the Bronx native known as Big Pun, was the first Puerto Rican hip hop artist to go platinum, with his 1998 debut Capital Punishment. He died on February 7, 2000. The Tats Cru artists knew him personally, and each year around the anniversary of his passing they redo the mural, so it changes a little every year.
The Universal Hip Hop Museum
The long-awaited museum's full opening has shifted to spring 2027, a delay that became public in early July. You don't have to wait entirely: the museum's Culture Lab at 658 Exterior St is open Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Beatstro, 135 Alexander Ave
In Mott Haven, Beatstro is a hip-hop-themed restaurant, a place where the culture is on the menu and on the walls. Remember: restaurants are smoke-free by law, so eat there and save the rest for home.
| Stop | Where | Why it matters | Visitor note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1520 Sedgwick Ave | West Bronx | Kool Herc's Aug. 11, 1973 party | Residential; view from outside only |
| Big Pun mural | Rogers Pl & Westchester Ave, Longwood | Tats Cru tribute, repainted yearly | Near Intervale Ave (2/5) |
| Hip Hop Museum Culture Lab | 658 Exterior St | Preview of the museum, full opening spring 2027 | Wed–Sat, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. |
| Beatstro | 135 Alexander Ave, Mott Haven | Hip-hop-themed restaurant | Smoke-free inside and out |
| Casa Amadeo | 786 Prospect Ave | NYC's oldest Latin music store | Call first |
How the Culture Shows Up on Legal Shelves
Walk the aisles of any licensed Bronx store and the overlap between cannabis and street culture is right there on the packaging. The shelves at Buddiez Bronx Cannabis Dispensary, for example, run from national names like Runtz, Cheech & Chong and Tyson 2.0 to New York brands whose names wink at city life: Bodega Boyz, 5 Boro, MFNY, Kings & Queens.
That branding is fun, but it's still branding. The consumer move is the same whatever the logo says: look for New York's universal cannabis symbol on the package and scan the QR code for the lab results. A cool name tells you who the product wants to be; the certificate of analysis tells you what's actually inside. New to that routine? Our first-time buyer's guide walks through it.
The culture also shows up in who gets to sell. That part has a longer backstory.
From Criminal Records to Dispensary Licenses
New York's 2021 legalization law was written with the history of enforcement in mind. Past convictions for conduct that is now legal were automatically expunged. And the state created the Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary license, known as CAURD, reserved for people with past cannabis convictions and their families.
No borough leans on that license more than the Bronx. State licensing records show 23 licensed dispensaries open here, and 17 of them hold CAURD licenses. That's 74%, the highest share of any borough.
The same corners that once produced possession arrests now host equity-licensed storefronts, and that is not a small thing.
CONBUD: Two Bronx Stores, Two Formerly Incarcerated Founders
CONBUD was founded by Coss Marte and Mario Ramos, both formerly incarcerated. CONBUD Bronx at 2412 Third Ave in Mott Haven opened April 18, 2024. CONBUD Yankee Stadium, at 898 Gerard Ave, one block from Gate 8, opened December 20, 2024, with a ribbon cutting on January 23, 2025.
Bronx Joint, Two Buds, Frass Box
Bronx Joint at 925 Hunts Point Ave is owned by Alex Ortecho, a Bedford Park native with past possession arrests, and is backed by the state's Social Equity Investment Fund. Two Buds in Wakefield is the borough's first Jamaican-owned dispensary, run by brothers Howell and Chris Miller. And Frass Box, the first licensed store in Greater Riverdale, takes its name from Jamaican slang. Caribbean culture has always been part of the Bronx sound, and it's in the legal market's DNA, too.
Buddiez, Melrose
Near The Hub, Buddiez Bronx Cannabis Dispensary in Melrose is another CAURD store, opened October 16, 2025, at 2935 Third Ave. The shop bills itself as "created for the Bronx by the Bronx," blending modern design with local culture and naming local hiring and social equity among its commitments. (Buddiez sponsors the Free Press; see our sponsor page.)
Want the full list? Our Bronx dispensary map breaks down every licensed store by neighborhood.
What's on the Calendar
The birthday is today, but the culture doesn't clock out after one night. A few dates for grown folks:
- Sept. 12: ¡BAILA! at the Bronx Music Hall, 438 E 163rd St.
- Sept. 19: Bronx Rising at the Bronx Music Hall.
- Oct. 10: The final Bronx Night Market of the season, noon to 7 p.m. at 161st Street and Grand Concourse, free with RSVP.
- Nov. 7: Ginuwine and Ro James at Lehman Center for the Performing Arts, 8 p.m.
This summer also brought the Funk Flex Hip-Hop Park Jam with Doug E. Fresh to SummerStage in Crotona Park on July 31. For everything else, see our fall 2026 Bronx events calendar.
The Free Press Take
Hip hop was built by young people in the Bronx who took what they had and made something the whole world wanted. The legal cannabis market asks a similar question: can the people and neighborhoods that carried the weight of prohibition also share in what comes next? In the Bronx, with three out of four stores held by equity licensees, the answer so far is closer to yes than anywhere else in the city. Celebrate that at the mural, at the museum's Culture Lab and at the Music Hall. Just keep the celebration legal, and bring the smoke home.
Frequently asked questions
Where was hip hop born?
At 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, where DJ Kool Herc threw a party on August 11, 1973. It's a residential building, so view it respectfully from outside.
When does the Universal Hip Hop Museum open?
Its full opening has shifted to spring 2027. In the meantime, the Culture Lab at 658 Exterior St is open Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
What is a CAURD dispensary?
A Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary license, reserved for people with past cannabis convictions and their families. Seventeen of the Bronx's 23 open stores hold one.
Can I smoke at the Big Pun mural or in Crotona Park?
Parks are smoke-free under city law, and landmarks sit in residential neighborhoods. Consume at home.
Luis Ocasio
Luis writes about the culture — hip hop's birthplace, the murals, the music venues and the people keeping Bronx traditions alive.
