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New York City’s mayor’s office has released a video celebrating the opening of the Bronx School of Hip-Hop, the first school of its kind in the city, which launched this month with roughly 100 freshmen. The video features founding principal Jason Reyes and rappers including Nas, Melle Mel, and Fat Joe, with Nas and Mayor Zohran Mamdani discussing hip-hop’s legacy and the school’s mission.
The office of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has released a video documenting the opening of the Bronx School of Hip-Hop, the first public high school of its kind in the city, which launched earlier this month with an inaugural freshman class of about 100 students. The video features founding principal Jason Reyes and appearances from rappers including Nas, Melle Mel, and Fat Joe, and frames the school as both a tribute to hip-hop’s Bronx origins and a new approach to engaging students.
The school opened its doors this month as the first institution of its kind in New York City, according to a report from Consequence. Its roughly 100 ninth-grade students will follow a project-based curriculum that ties core academic subjects to the five elements of hip-hop rather than teaching them as separate tracks.
Under that model, MCing is paired with English Language Arts and communication skills, DJing with math and technology, graffiti with design and literacy, and breakdancing with science and health, while a “knowledge of self” element is intended to build critical thinking. The stated aim, according to the report, is to increase student engagement by connecting coursework to a cultural tradition rooted in the borough itself.
Nas, the Queens-born rapper, was not physically present on the school’s first day, but appears in the video in a recorded sitdown with Mamdani, who is himself a rapper. In the conversation, Nas reflected on hip-hop’s origins 53 years ago and its role as a vehicle for truth-telling about urban life, drawing on his own experience growing up in New York.
A Curriculum Built on Hip-Hop’s Five Elements
The school represents a notable experiment in culturally anchored education: rather than adding hip-hop as an elective, it embeds the culture’s five elements across the entire academic program. City officials and the school’s founders are betting that grounding math, literacy, science, and critical thinking in a tradition born in the Bronx will improve engagement for students who might otherwise feel disconnected from standard coursework.
For Mamdani, the video also serves a political function. The rapper-turned-mayor has tied his administration’s identity to New York’s cultural history, and his closing message in the video — that the city “can’t be content with having been the birthplace of hip-hop” — positions the school as evidence of ongoing investment in the borough’s young people. For artists like Nas and Fat Joe, participation signals institutional recognition of hip-hop as an educational asset rather than merely entertainment.
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Hip-Hop’s Bronx Origins, 53 Years On
Hip-hop is widely recognized as having been born in the Bronx in 1973, making the culture 53 years old at the time of the school’s launch. The genre’s golden anniversary in 2023 prompted a wave of commemorations, exhibitions, and retrospectives across New York City, and the school opening extends that legacy into the public education system.
Mamdani, who took office as mayor after a career that included work as a rapper, has publicly named Nas among his favorite artists. The Bronx School of Hip-Hop is one of several new schools that opened across the city this year, alongside the Bronx School of Arts & Exploration and three additional schools in Queens, according to Consequence.
“To keep writing, to keep creating, to keep dreaming. It’s also a reminder of what the city has to be. We have to forever be hungry. We can’t be content with having been the birthplace of hip-hop. We want it to still be the home.”
— Mayor Zohran Mamdani, closing the video
Unanswered Questions About Outcomes
It is too early to know whether the hip-hop-based curriculum will improve academic outcomes or engagement, as no performance data exists for a school that opened weeks ago. The claim that the approach will increase student engagement reflects the school’s stated intent rather than measured results.
Details about enrollment criteria, staffing, and funding were not included in the video or the initial report, and it is not clear how the city plans to evaluate the school’s success. Consequence’s suggestion that the school “will likely produce more than its fair share of rappers” is speculation, not a stated goal of the program.
The First Year Ahead for the Freshman Class
The roughly 100 freshmen will spend the coming school year working through the project-based, hip-hop-integrated curriculum for the first time. Observers can expect the mayor’s office and the Department of Education to face early questions about how the model performs in practice, and whether the school expands to additional grade levels in future years as its inaugural class advances.
The school’s progress may also influence whether similar culturally themed programs are considered elsewhere in the city, particularly given the other new schools that opened this year in the Bronx and Queens.
Key Questions
What is the Bronx School of Hip-Hop?
It is a new New York City public high school — the first of its kind in the city — that opened this month with about 100 freshmen. Its curriculum ties core subjects to the five elements of hip-hop: MCing, DJing, graffiti, breakdancing, and knowledge of self.
Was Nas at the school on its first day?
No. According to Consequence, Nas was not present on the first day, but he appears in the mayor’s office video in a recorded sitdown with Mayor Zohran Mamdani discussing hip-hop’s significance.
How does hip-hop connect to academic subjects at the school?
Per the school’s model, MCing supports English Language Arts and communication, DJing teaches math and technology, graffiti develops design and literacy, breakdancing examines science and health, and knowledge of self builds critical thinking.
What did Mayor Mamdani say in the video?
Mamdani closed the video by urging students to keep writing, creating, and dreaming, and said New York “can’t be content with having been the birthplace of hip-hop. We want it to still be the home.”
Is this the only new school in New York City this year?
No. The Bronx School of Hip-Hop is one of several new schools that opened across the city this year, including the Bronx School of Arts & Exploration and three other schools in Queens.
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