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Meet 'Rappin Max Robot'
With the first ever Olympic break dancing competitions happening in Paris, a special tribute will be on display back here in New York City. It comes in the form of a giant robot sculpture named "Rappin Max Robot". FOX 5 NY’s Duarte Geraldino introduces us to the artists and explains the meaning behind their design.
NEW YORK CITY - With the first ever Olympic break dancing competitions happening in Paris, a special tribute is now on display in New York City.
It comes in the form of a giant robot sculpture named "Rappin Max Robot".
For years, Eric Orr carried the idea of the comic book character "Rappin Max Robot" in his head before drawing him in the mid 1980s as a tribute to hip-hop, which at the time was considered part of an underground cultural movement.
"I like the robot character and that is the way I sort of escaped all that craziness from the early 80s," Orr said.
The steel sculpture was fabricated in Brooklyn under Orr's guidance by a bunch of apprentices that included his son.
It was reconstructed in front of the Future of Hip-Hop Museum.
It weighs several tons and represents how hip-hop culture has in many ways grown to represent American culture around the world.
Before he heads to Europe, he will spend the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip hop in the Bronx, not too far from the Sedgwick Avenue apartment building where the art form is said to have been created.
"It is heart-warming to see that what we created is helping to polish up the area that we came from," Orr said.