Once you’re standing below the arched ceiling of the landmarked former home of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank (which many may recognize as the former home to the Van Gogh Experience) in the House of Lumières, you’re taken both forwards and backwards in time to the history and future of hip-hop music. The placard near the front lays out five neat sections of the genre’s history beginning —of course — in New York, traveling West, and then going South by cassette tape, radio DJ and mix CD. The final section describes the globalization of Hip Hop through the Internet. The writing on the entry placard is the clearest part of exhibit (especially for younger or casual rap fans who are unlikely to know the faces, places or context). While the audio-visual experience feels cutting edge, the audience is left to wander through the mostly under utilized space without clear directions of where to go next or the intended journey of the whole experience. Highlights include a short preview for Questlove’s forthcoming music history documentary, a collection of music memorabilia which will soon be featured in another exhibit, and clips from Video Music Box which contain glimpses of much younger versions of today’s familiar faces (Jay-Z, Nas, LL Cool J) which would greatly benefit from captions and labels. Overall, Hip Hop Til Infinity is an inventive take on the budding ‘immersive experience’ trend. However, for a musical genre that is quite literally rooted in storytelling and ingenuity, the show lacks narrative structure, reason, and unfortunately: rhyme.

Just around the way on Reade Street, grab a bar stool at 1803. Oysters come fried, charbroiled, or on the half shell and you can chat up a regular over live music. Every on-menu cocktail is perfect (a tough feat during happy hour) and they’ll even make a Sazerac if you ask.