(CNN) New York awarded a $3.75 million state grant Thursday to help build The Universal Hip Hop Museum, an archive dedicated to the preservation and celebration of hip-hop history and culture.

Now at a temporary location in the Bronx Terminal Market, The Universal Hip Hop Museum is the brain child of New Yorkers who have been on the hip-hop scene since the very beginning.

One of these New Yorkers is executive director Rocky Bucano. Born and raised in the Bronx, Bucano was a DJ as a teenager in the early 1970's.

Bucano describes the 8-year-old museum as an "ambitious, audacious dream." His co-founders include hip-hop legends Kurtis Blow, the first commercially successful rapper, and Grand Wizzard Theodore, who pioneered the popular DJ technique known as "scratching." On the founding board of directors is Ice-T and cultural ambassadors include New York natives LL Cool J and Nas.

"We knew it was important because the Bronx is where hip-hop started," Bucano told CNN. "It's crazy to think of how hip-hop — which has such an influence on pop culture, advertising, politics — doesn't have a place to call home."

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