The virtual Hip Hop Museum, developed for The Hip Hop Museum, is an immersive metaverse experience designed to break down barriers of accessibility and bring the history of Hip Hop and rap to a global audience.
Explore The virtual Hip Hop Museum here.
Created in partnership with design firm CARNEVALE, the virtual museum allows fans to navigate digital spaces using custom avatars from the comfort of their homes. Users can step into a recreation of the Bronx subway station, near where the culture was born, and explore first-person virtual environments, including recording studios, performance stages, VIP lounges, and art galleries.
The platform is built to replicate the magic and authenticity of the physical museum, offering a dynamic environment that features rotating exhibits and live musical performances to keep the Hip Hop generation continuously engaged.
The Hip Hop Museum caught up with Matt Medonis and Kenton Reynolds of CARNEVALE to talk about the virtual museum, how the space will be complementary to the physical museum when it opens, their favorite spaces within the virtual museum and more.
Adam Aziz: Could you start by introducing yourself and what you do at CARNEVALE?
Matt Medonis: Yeah, so I’m Matt Medonis. I’m a UX/UI designer here at CARNEVALE. I work on everything from standard phone applications to internal applications and business solutions for large companies, and I really love the VR and AR space.
Kenton Reynolds: My name is Kenton Reynolds. I am the 3D artist. And for this museum project, all the 3D assets you’re seeing in the worlds we’ll be visiting have been put in place by me.
AA: How did a company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, end up working with The Hip Hop Museum?
MM: The founder of the company, Mike, is a huge Hip Hop head. I think they had an idea for a virtual museum five or six years before I was even in the company.
AA: And for people who haven’t experienced the virtual Hip Hop Museum, what is it, and what will people see?
MM: We like to not think of it as a virtual clone of the actual Hip Hop Museum, but we do want to share information with people that they could get online, rather than having to go across the world to get to New York. Maybe it gets them inspired to want to make a trip out there in the future. We want to share Hip Hop history. We want to share donor pieces that might not make it into The Hip Hop Museum, but only into the virtual space.
AA: For those who haven’t experienced the virtual museum, what would you compare the experience to around something people might have experienced elsewhere?
MM: I don’t really know if there’s much like this that’s comparable. The closest thing you can compare it to is video games. I found a lot of inspiration going back to some old games like NBA Street Volume 2, which I played when I was growing up. Listening to that soundtrack was probably the first time I had ever heard old-school Hip Hop. We like to find inspiration from all different places.
We had to build out a subway, and I think I might have been on the New York subway when I was five. And we had to build a club from the 80s and 90s eras that I wasn’t even around for.
We had to do a ton of research, talk with Rocky, and bring back the feeling of what that old club might have felt like in the 90s, or of the studio or the park where Hip Hop originally started.
AA: Do you remember why you landed on the specific spaces you created within the virtual museum?
KR: Throughout our discussions, our primary goal was authenticity. We all agreed that a New York subway was the perfect central hub because it feels natural and serves as the core of the entire experience.
This subway station is the epitome of the virtual Hip Hop experience, a gateway to all the other worlds we’ve built. Initially, we had countless ideas for showcasing Hip Hop’s history and vibrant culture. For instance, Matt and I designed a ‘graffiti paint world’, a galaxy-like space where users can watch artists create different pieces. We had so many different ideas that we started working on them, which culminated in what you’re seeing now.
AA: How do you envision the virtual museum co-existing with the physical Hip Hop Museum when it opens?
KR: That is an excellent question, and it’s one we have addressed frequently. When people first hear about the virtual experience, they often wonder if it’s a direct, one-to-one replica of the upcoming physical building.
The answer is no. We designed the virtual experience to stand on its own as a complement to the physical space. Rather than just duplicating the physical exhibits, the virtual world expands upon them, offering deeper context, additional knowledge, and an enhanced atmosphere. It is designed to be an additive, complementary experience rather than a strict replication.
AA: What do you see as the future of the virtual museum?
KR: We’ve had many conversations with the team about where we think we can go and the things that we can build. It’s almost limitless. We have this virtual playground where we can create whatever environment we want and whatever experiences we want users to have. And we’ve already had multiple conversations with other donors and people at the Museum about different kinds of activities we want users to experience, maybe in countries where Hip Hop is experienced differently. We’ve started talks about incorporating many multicultural experiences into the space.
But again, I think the idea of this is that we can create whatever kind of world we want people to experience. And just knowing that, having that opportunity, and having that ability is very powerful.
We want to make it so that you don’t have to go or move anywhere to see, hear or experience this. You don’t have to go to New York to check out some of the cool things the Museum is doing. You just need your computer or your phone, a mobile device of some sort, even a headset, and you can experience this. But yeah, for the future, there’s an endless amount of possibilities.
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