Idolator

1520 Sedgwick Avenue, the Bronx apartment complex labeled "the birthplace of hip-hop" thanks to DJ Kool Herc spinning at parties in its community room during the '70s, has been sold to a New York real estate developer after tenants' efforts to buy the building were rejected by a New York State Supreme Court. Residents are wary of the likely rent hikes that will come as the result of the developer, Mark Karasick, wanting a return on his $7 million investment, although Karasick's attorney noted that New York's rent-control laws are still in full effect. (Presumably his client had studied the lessons of Stuyvesant Town very closely.) The building was declared an historic landmark in July 2007, and the president of the building's tenants association said that the residents "intend to keep fighting to preserve our homes and to preserve the historical significance of our building." [NY Daily News]