Queensbridge

Queensbridge Houses is the largest public housing development in the United States. Queensbridge which is located in Long Island City, New York in Queens opened in 1933. The 3,142 unit complex is the country's largest such housing project and is owned by the New York City Housing Authority.

Music

As large as Queensbridge is, its fifty acres (200,000 m²) were too cramped to contain the hip-hop music produced by its inhabitants. Marlon ?Marley Marl? Williams was the first in a long succession of acclaimed rappers from ?The Bridge,? which became one of the most prolific rap-producing neighborhood in the country. Marl, MC Shan, Roxanne Shanté, Nas,The Bravehearts, Mobb Deep, and Capone-N-Noreaga, among many others, all added a new edge to pop-culture lore about ?the projects.?

Related Topics:
Hip-hop - Marley Marl - Rappers - MC Shan - Roxanne Shanté - Nas - The Bravehearts - Mobb Deep - Capone-N-Noreaga

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During the 1950's, groups of teenagers harmonized in the summer evenings on street corners. They sang the then new rock and roll music. At the Community Center, Mrs. Winterbottom taught children to play the recorder, an Elizabethan flute-like instrument that you could buy from her for four dollars. She also taught singing. It was mostly classical music in her class, but also popular songs of the day, such as "Catch a Falling Star." She taught us to read music.

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