Hip Hop Hall of Fame Awards to Return to NYC, Co-Hosted by MC Roxanne Shanté

The Hip Hop Hall of Fame Awards induction ceremony and concert television show returns to New York for a taping in midtown Manhattan on May 19. 

To be co-hosted by female MC Roxanne Shanté, a founding member of seminal hip hop collective the Juice Crew and central figure in the so-called "Roxanne Wars," this will be the first broadcast of the show since it first aired nationally on BET in the 1996. (Organizers have said competition from the Source Hip-Hop Awards, which has been televised on UPN and BET, in part hindered plans to bring the award show back to TV.)

"The BET show inductions included Run DMC with Jam Master Jay, the Godfather of Hip Hop DJ Kool Herc, and DJs Grandmaster Flash, Kool DJ Red Alert, and others Included the Zulu Nation, Easy E and more that will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame Hip Hop Museum in Midtown," commented JT Thompson, creator, chairman, and executive producer of the Hip Hop Hall of Fame Awards, in a press release. 

The Hip Hop Hall of Fame Museum, which has beenin the works since 2004, is slated to open in 2016. In addition to the museum and the televised broadcast of the awards ceremony, the Hall of Fame mini-empire will feature hip-hop memorabilia and historical records, a TV studio for Hip-Hop 1, a retail store and a themed restaurant.

Inductees are scheduled to be announced on April 24 in a press conference and video screening -- including footage of the inaugural Hip Hop Hall of Fame Awards in the 90s -- at the National Black Theater in Harlem.

For more information, visit the Hip Hop Hall of Fame Museum "s official website.

billboard.com