The station is mentioned in the title song of the Broadway musical In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda, where Usnavi says to take the A train "even farther than Harlem to Northern Manhattan and maintain, get off at 181st and take the escalator.
I hope you're writing this down I'm gonna test ya later".

On September 13, 1980, aspiring pianist Eric Kaminsky was robbed and stabbed to death in the station.
 His murder became the basis for his mother's book The Victim's Song.
The station is mentioned in the title song of the Broadway musical In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda, where Usnavi says to take the A train "even farther than Harlem to Northern Manhattan and maintain, get off at 181st and take the escalator. I hope you're writing this down I'm gonna test ya later".
On September 13, 1980, aspiring pianist Eric Kaminsky was robbed and stabbed to death in the station.  His murder became the basis for his mother's book The Victim's Song.
181st Street station (IND Eighth Avenue Line)