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Hip-hop (also known as rap music or simply rap) is a popular music Music genre that emerged in the early 1970s alongside hip-hop culture in the African-American and Latino communities of New York City. The musical style is characterized by the synthesis of a wide range of techniques, but rapping is frequent enough that it has nearly become a defining characteristic. Other key markers of the genre are the disc jockey (DJ), turntablism, scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks. Cultural interchange has always been central to the hip-hop genre; it simultaneously borrows from its social environment while commenting on it.
The hip-hop genre and culture emerged from block parties in ethnic minority neighborhoods of New York City, particularly the Bronx. DJs began expanding the instrumental breaks of popular records when they noticed how excited it would make the crowds. The extended breaks provided a platform for Breakdancing and rappers. These breakbeats enabled the subsequent evolution of the hip-hop style. Many of the records used were disco due to its popularity at the time. This disco-inflected music was originally known as disco-rap and later described as "old-school hip-hop".
In the late 1980s and 1990s, hip-hop began to diversify as electro music started to inform a style later known as "new-school hip-hop". The transition between the mid-1980s and 1990s became known as "hip-hop's golden age", as the genre earned widespread critical acclaim and generated massive sales. Across the United States, several regional scenes emerged, most notably on the East and West Coasts, as well as in the Southern hip-hop, which included the Houston hip-hop, Atlanta hip-hop and Memphis rap scenes. This era saw the emergence of popular styles such as G-funk, boom bap and gangsta rap, as well as more experimental genres like alternative hip-hop and jazz rap, which stemmed from the Native Tongues movement, alongside progressive rap and conscious rap.
By the 2000s and 2010s, the popularity of hip-hop further expanded with the rise of internet rap, trap music, and Soundcloud rap, which led to several commercially successful artists. In 2017, hip-hop became the bestselling genre of popular music in the United States and had also developed its own regional variations around the world.
A common variation on "hip hop" is "hippity hop", which was in wide usage by the 19th century. It appears in works like a poem from 1882 where four children sing, "Hippity hop to the candy Shop!"Cummings, Elizabeth. " Spring Weather", Wide Awake, vol. 16. Boston: D. Lothrop & Company, 1883. 388–9 It was a common refrain in skipping games.Douglas, Norman. London Street Games. St. Catherine Press, 1916. 51, 76–7.
Many dance steps include a hop. By the 18th century, "hop" began to be used interchangeably with "dance" as both a noun and a verb." Hop, N. (2)", Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford UP, September 2024.
In another version of Starsky's tale, he coined "hip-hop" with Keef Cowboy from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five as they traded jibes at a friend who was going into the Army.Caramanica, Jon. " Lovebug Starski, Hip-Hop Trailblazer, Is Dead at 57". The New York Times, February 9, 2018. B8. Kidd Creole recalls the scene without Lovebug present, "Cowboy was on the mic playin around doing that Army cadence: Hip/Hop/Hip/Hop...Disco was king at the time, and the Disco crowd referred to us as those 'Hip Hoppers', but they used it as a derogatory term. But Cowboy was the first one I heard do that to music, as part of his crowd response."JayQuan, " Remembering Keef Cowboy", Furious5.net. Archived March 17, 2006.Ewoodzie, Joseph C. Break Beats in the Bronx: Rediscovering Hip-Hop's Early Years. University of North Carolina Press, 2017. 129.
The phrase was in common usage by the time The Sugarhill Gang recorded "Rapper's Delight" in 1979.Chang, Jeff. " How Hip-Hop Got Its Name". Medium. April 10, 2016. The chorus begins, "I said a hip-hop, the hippie, the hippie/To the hip, hip-hop and you don't stop the rockin'".Sugarhill Gang. "Rapper's Delight". Sugar Hill, 1979.
By the early 1980s, hip-hop's definition had expanded into "the all inclusive tag for the rapping, breaking, graffiti-writing, crew fashion wearing street sub-culture".Holman, Michael. " An Interview with DJ Africa Bambaata of the Zulu Nation," East Village Eye. January 1982, 22. Afrika Bambaataa was instrumental in turning the term into a positive force through his Universal Zulu Nation. The VIBE History of Hip-Hop. Edited by Alan Light. Three Rivers Press, 1999. Their social movement was anti-drug and anti-violence.Stearns, David Patrick. " Hip-Hop Makes its Mark". News-Press, July 6, 1984. 43.Hager, Steven. Hip Hop: The Illustrated History of Break Dancing, Rap Music, and Graffiti. St Martins Press, 1984.
As rappers began to dominate hip-hop, the terms became synonymous. However, hip-hop's definition has always applied to its entire culture.Randel, Don Michael, editor. "Hip Hop." The Harvard Dictionary of Music, 4th ed., Harvard University Press, 2003.Tate, Greg, Light, Alan, Ray, Michael. " Hip-hop", Encyclopædia Britannica. Apr 14, 2025 Its four principal elements include rapping, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti art." Hip-hop, N." Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, December 2024.Kugelberg, Johan. Born in the Bronx. Oxford University Press, 2007. 17.Chang, Jeff. Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. St. Martin's Press, 2005. Knowledge is sometimes described as a fifth element, underscoring its role in shaping the values and promoting empowerment and consciousness-raising through music.Gosa, Travis L. " The Fifth Element: Knowledge." The Cambridge Companion to Hip-Hop. Ed. Justin A. Williams. Cambridge University Press, 2015. 56–70.
KRS-One identified additional elements: self-expression, street fashion, street language, street knowledge, and street entrepreneurialism. He also recognized girls' Double Dutch jump rope as a key stylistic component of breakdancing.McCabe, Allyson. " How the Fantastic Four took Double Dutch to new heights", Oregon Public Broadcasting. Dec 6, 2022.
In addition to borrowing from the culture, hip-hop simultaneously comments on it. From its roots in the Bronx to its current global reach, hip-hop has served as a voice for the disenfranchised, shedding light on issues such as racial inequality, poverty, and police brutality.Nasir, Noreen. " In the beginning, there was the Bronx", Associated Press. August 9, 2023.
Nowhere was this cross-pollination of musics better typified than in the Caribbean island of Jamaica, where AM radio signals from Miami, Florida, were audible. In the late 1950s, the U.S. stations played much more invigorating rhythm and blues music than the staid BBC which was syndicated by the island's only radio channel, Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation. American DJs like Jocko Henderson and Jockey Jack introduced R&B records and jive talking to the island. Local DJs soon began setting up sound systems for outdoor parties.Brewster, Bill and Frank Broughton. Last Night a DJ Saved My Life. Headline, 1999. A vibrant music scene emerged. The jive of American DJs transmuted into toasts in Jamaican Patois.Augustyn, Heather. " Spinning Wheels: The Circular Evolution of Jive, Toasting, and Rap," Caribbean Quarterly 61 (1). 2015. 60–74.
Jive talk popularized black-appeal stations in the post-war era. Its double entendres were a godsend to radio, re-invigorating ratings at flagging outlets. It emerged from traditions like call and response, signifyin', the dozens, capping, and jazz poetry.Hilmes, Michele. Radio Voices: American Broadcasting, 1922-1952. University of Minnesota Press, 1997. 273.Neumann, Friedrich. " Hip Hop: Origins, Characteristics and Creative Processes." The World of Music, vol. 42, no. 1, 2000, pp. 51–63. The transition from oral tradition to the commercial airwaves was exemplified by WDIA disc jockeys like Nat D. and Rufus Thomas. Their on-air jive was honed during their hosting duties at the Palace Theatre's Amateur Night on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee.Jenkins, Earnestine. " The 'Voice of Memphis:' WDIA, Nat D. Williams, and Black Radio Culture in the Early Civil Rights Era", Tennessee Historical Quarterly, vol. 65, no. 3, 2006. 259. D.J's like Chicago's Al Benson (WYLL), Austin's Doctor Hep Cat (KVET), and Atlanta's Jockey Jack (WERD) spoke the same rhyming, cadence-laden rap style.George, Marsha Washington. Black Radio...Winner Takes All: America's 1St Black DJs. Xlibris US, 2002. 100f They might introduce a great musician like, "Here is a guy that will move you in from the outskirts of town because he breathes natural gas...so droop to listening to a real gone cat whose loaded his knowledge box in the house of the righteous, and can lo blow."Dr. Hepcat. The Jives of Dr. Hepcat. Lavada Durst, 1953. 7. Many white DJ's like John R Richbourg on Nashville's WLAC emulated the southern 'mushmouth' and jive talk, and switched out swing music for blues and bebop." John R. Richbourg", Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame. Accessed May 21, 2025.Cox, Jim. Music Radio: The Great Performers and Programs of the 1920s Through Early 1960s. McFarland, 2024. 157f. The jive-talking rappers of 1950s radio inspired musical comedians like Rudy Ray Moore, Pigmeat Markham, and Blowfly, along with Soul music singer James Brown. They have been called "godfathers" of hip-hop music.
, a major influence on hip-hop]]The rhythmic speech of rap is an ancient practice, first codified by the Greeks. In 20th-century Western music, it was a widely used practice in everything from sprechstimme to the talking blues. The roots of rapping in African-American music are easily traced to the griots in West African culture.Ted Gioia. The History of Jazz, 3rd Edition. Oxford University Press, 2021. 8.Campbell, K.E. Gettin' Our Groove On: Rhetoric, Language, and Literacy for the Hip Hop Generation. Wayne State University Press, 2005. 30ff. Bo Diddley made several influential talking records, and the gospel group The Jubalaires' 1946 song "Noah" is frequently seen as a forerunner of Rapping.Sarachik, Justin. " The Jubalaires Were Doing Gospel Rap Back in the 1940s". Rapzilla. July 11, 2016. Other notable talking records were Muhammad Ali's I Am the Greatest (1963) and Pigmeat Markham's "Here Comes the Judge" (1968)." The Artist" in Muhammad Ali: A Transcendent Life, University of Louisville Muhammad Ali Institute and the University Libraries. 2021.Taylor, Yuval and Jake Austen. Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop. W. W. Norton, 2012. 236. Ali's patter was an enormous influence on hip-hop. He was known as a "rhyming trickster" due to the funky delivery of his boasts, trash talk, and indelible phrases.Reeves, Mosi. " Muhammad Ali: World's Greatest Boxer Was Also Hip-Hop Pioneer", Rolling Stone. June 4, 2016. Many of his monologues were Freestyle rap improvisations which would become a vital skill Old-school hip-hop rappers.Rubin, Mik. " Muhammad Ali: 4 Ways He Changed America". Rolling Stone. June 5, 2016.
In New York City, spoken word poetry by artists like The Last Poets, Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, and Gil Scott-Heron had a significant impact on the post-civil rights era. They helped establish the cultural environment in which hip-hop music was created.Cepeda, Raquel. And It Don't Stop: The Best American Hip-Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years. Faber & Faber, 2004. xvi. "Jalal Mansur Nuriddin: farewell to the 'grandfather of rap'", The Guardian, 6 June 2018.
During these proto-rap years in America, Jamaican music regularly featured talking records like U-Roy and Peter Tosh's "Righteous Ruler" and King Stitt's "Fire Corner" in 1969. Jamaican DJs were also heavily remixing recorded music to generate new sounds. Duke Reid would preside over his sound system, tweaking knobs until the record he was playing became unrecognizable. In the studio, artists like King Tubby would strip the vocals out of records to create a new version. The public appetite for these remixes became so strong that singles were released with the original on one side and the "version" on the other.
Veal, Michael E. Dub: Songscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae. Wesleyan University Press, 2007. 52.Moskowitz, David V. Caribbean Popular Music: An Encyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rock Steady, and Dancehall. ABC-CLIO, 2005. 94. The eclectic stew of production techniques came to be known as dub music, and it is the strongest artistic precedent for hip-hop.Bruno Blum. Le Rap Est Né En JamaïQue. Castor Astral, 2009.
The dominant genre of the time was disco. Even black radio stations were playing hit disco records as they targeted larger suburban audiences. The way Europe stripped the blackness out of funk and disco and streamlined it became a target for parody in the black community. George Clinton mercilessly lampooned it as "The Placebo Syndrome" in his P-Funk mythology.George, Nelson. The Death of Rhythm & Blues. Plume, 1988. Even though disco birthed hip-hop, much of the genre's early spirit was a rebellion against its parent.Asante, Molefi K. It's Bigger Than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post-Hip-Hop Generation. St. Martin's Press, 2008. 9f. Hip-hop first had to inherit the rich trove of studio and DJ techniques that disco innovated.
It became trendy for dancers to use the instrumental break in a song to show off their best moves. Some would even forego dancing until the break in a record came on. The practice became known as "breakdancing", and it increased demand for breaks that DJs would soon supply.McNamee, David. " Hey, what's that sound: Turntablism". The Guardian, January 11, 2010. These dancers became known as "B-birls" and "-boys". "B" could be short for "break", "beat", "battle", or "Bronx" depending on who was using it.Schloss, Joseph G. Foundation: B-Boys, B-girls and Hip-Hop Culture in New York. Oxford University Press, 2009. 59.
One of the most popular clubs was the Plaza Tunnel in the basement of the Concourse Plaza Hotel where DJ John Brown held sway. To keep people moving, he would mix a wide range of records like Jimmy Castor "It's Just Begun", The Isley Brothers' "Get Into Something", Earth, Wind & Fire's "Moment of Truth", Rare Earth's "Get Ready", Redbone's "Maggie", and Chicago's "I'm a Man".
Breakdancers prized originality. They created signature moves that other breakers would only imitate in order to outdo them.Vernon, Jim. Hip Hop, Hegel, and the Art of Emancipation: Let's Get Free. Springer International Publishing AG, 2018. 108. The emphasis on creativity extended to DJs who would battle each other. They would even replicate the Jamaican practice of removing record labels to keep their breaks a secret from other DJs. Many early hip-hop DJs were immigrants from the Caribbean.Karon, Tony. " 'Hip-Hop Nation' Is Exhibit A for America's Latest Cultural Revolution", Time, September 22, 2000.Farley, Christopher John. " Rock's New Spin", Time, October 18, 1999. The techniques they used to generate new material from existing vinyl records was familiar to Jamaican dub music. The Sound Of Channel One: King Tubby Connection. Liner Notes. Motion Records, 1999.Davis, Stephen. Reggae Bloodlines: In Search of the Music and Culture of Jamaica. Da Capo Press, 1992. Hip-hop began to develop its own moral code that prized truth and ingenuity over limpid mimicry.KRS-One. The Gospel of Hip Hop: First Instrument. Powerhouse Books, 2009.
DJs found certain breaks to be extremely popular from records like Baby Huey's "Listen To Me", James Brown's "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose", Dennis Coffey's "Son of Scorpio", Cymande's "Bra", Dynamic Corvettes' "Funky Music Is the Thing", Jeannie Reynolds' "Fruit Song", as well as the Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache" and "Bongo Rock". DJ Kool Herc figured out a way to prolong these breaks by crossfading between two copies of the same record. Herc's initial claim to fame was his sound system which featured a McIntosh Laboratory amplifier and two columns of Shure speakers. He dubbed it "The Herculords", and it earned him a massive following.
His method of playing breaks was extremely crude, however. Herc would just estimate where the break was as he tried to extend it. Often, he would have to talk over the transition as the breaks did not match up. It was DJs like Grand Wizzard Theodore, Jazzy Jay, and Grandmaster Flash who perfected the trick. They developed a technique known as needle dropping by precisely cuing up the breaks in headphones in order to create a perfect transition between the two phonographs. As the first break finished, they would crossfade to the second turntable which was cued up at the beginning of the break. While the second record played, they would spin the first record backwards to the beginning of the break and crossfade into it when the second break was over. This method allowed a break to be prolonged indefinitely. These extended breaks became known as a "". When a playing record is reversed, the sound is distorted. The effect became trendy and eventually evolved into the hip-hop technique known as "scratching"." Birthplace Of Hip Hop", History Detectives. Season 6, episode 11.
in the Bronx, site of Cindy Campbell's party]]Kool Herc first began extending breaks at a back-to-school rent party his sister Cindy Campbell hosted in the recreation room of their building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue on the southwest side of the Bronx.Gonzales, Michael A. " Party Over Here: An Oral History of Kool Herc's Historic Back-to-School Jam", Mass Appeal. August 11, 2017. Archived April 2, 2019. The date of the party, August 11, 1973, has been aggressively marketed as the "Birth of Hip-Hop".Laurence, Rebecca. " Culture – 40 years on from the party where hip hop was born", BBC. August 9, 2013.Browne, David. " Kool Herc and the History (and Mystery) of Hip-Hop's First Day". Rolling Stone. August 11, 2023. The Campbells emigrated from Jamaica when Herc was 12. Initially, Herc denied any connection between the Jamaican music scene and his work. Later in life, he embraced the parallels.Walker, Noel Cymone. "DJ Kool Herc Is Ready to Bring Hip-Hop Back to Its Roots With a Museum in Jamaica", Billboard, February 24, 2020. Archived December 1, 2021.Aprahamian, Serouj "Midus". The Birth of Breaking: Hip-Hop History from the Floor Up. Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, 2023.
Kool Herc's style attracted a following that outgrew the rec room, and he joined the thriving block party scene.Lamotte, Martin. "Rebels Without a Pause: Hip-hop and Resistance in the City", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 38, no. 2. 2014. 686-94. These parties were an outlet for teenagers, where "instead of getting into trouble on the streets, teens now had a place to expend their pent-up energy." Tony Tone, a member of the Cold Crush Brothers, stated that "hip hop saved a lot of lives".Chang, Jeff. " It's a Hip-hop World". Foreign Policy no. 163, November–December 2007. 58–65. For inner-city youth, participating in hip-hop culture became a way of dealing with the hardships of life as minorities within America, and an outlet to deal with the risk of violence and the rise of gang culture. MC Kid Lucky mentions that "people used to break-dance against each other instead of fighting".Zimmer, Amy. " Bringing that beat back – on the E train". Metro New York. February 20, 2006. Archived August 5, 2008.del Barco, Mandalit. " Breakdancing, Present at the Creation", Morning Edition, NPR. October 14, 2002.
A typical hip-hop event was a triple bill featuring the DJ, MC, and breakdancers. Graffiti artists would decorate the stage and design flyers and posters.
Rose, Tricia. Black Noise. Wesleyan University Press, 1994. Much of the graffiti, rapping, and Breakdancing at these parties were artistic variations on the one-upmanship of Gang. Sensing that gang members' often violent urges could be turned into creative ones, Afrika Bambaataa founded the Zulu Nation, a loose confederation of street-dance crews, graffiti artists, and rap musicians. Rock Steady Crew were a group of breakdancers which included members from Puerto Rico.
During the New York City blackout of 1977, DJ equipment was heavily looted due to the popularity of the emerging genre. Kool Herc recalls, "The next day there were a thousand new D.J.'s."Rosen, Jody. " A Rolling Shout-Out to Hip-Hop History", The New York Times. February 12, 2006. B1. By 1978, Billboard magazine was taking notice of the popularity of "B-beats" in the Bronx.Ford Jr., Robert. " B-Beats Bombarding Bronx", Billboard. July 1, 1978. 6.Neal, Mark Anthony. That's the Joint! The Hip-hop Studies Reader. Routledge, 2004.
Kool Herc found Jamaican toasts did not resonate with dancers. He and Coke La Rock developed an influential rapping style over their funk breaks. MCs relied on call and response chants and eventually developed more sophisticated routines. As with other practitioners of hip-hop, MCs strove to set themselves apart with their creativity and competitiveness." History of Hip Hop – Old School", nciMUSIC. Archived July 14, 2011.
Just as many of the best breakdancers were women, the birth of hip-hop included female rappers like the Funky 4 + 1's Sha-Rock. Sugar Hill Records signed The Sequence, a trio that included Angie Stone. Their single "Funk You Up" was the first hip-hop hit by an all-female group.Sha Rock and Iesha Brown. The Story of the Beginning and End of the First Hip Hop Female MC...Luminary Icon Sha-Rock. OuttaDaBluePublishing, 2010.Weingarten, Christopher R. " The Sequence: The Funked-Up Legacy of Hip-Hop's First Ladies", Rolling Stone. May 24, 2017.
Often these were collaborations between former , such as Afrikaa Bambaataa's Universal Zulu Nation—now an international organization. Melle Mel, a rapper with the Furious Five is often credited with being the first rap lyricist to call himself an "MC".Watkins, Grouchy Greg. " Grand Master Mele Mel: Gun Show Part One", All Hip Hop. January 16, 2007.
Although there were some early MCs that recorded solo projects of note, such as DJ Hollywood, Kurtis Blow, and Spoonie Gee, the frequency of solo artists did not increase until later with the rise of soloists with stage presence and drama, such as LL Cool J. Most early hip-hop was dominated by groups where collaboration between the members was integral to the show.David Toop. Rap Attack II: African Rap To Global Hip Hop. Serpent's Tail, 2000. 94ff. The first hip-hop artist to appear on national television were the group Funky 4 + 1, who appeared on Saturday Night Live in 1981.Bynoe, Yvonne. Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip-Hop Culture. Greenwood Press, 2006. 146.
In March 1979, Fatback Band released "You're My Candy Sweet" as a single. The B-side was called "King Tim III (Personality Jock)", and it is generally considered the first commercially released rap song.Heard, Chris. " Silver jubilee for first rap hit", BBC News. October 14, 2004
Three months later, Chic released "Good Times". It became a number one single on August 18. The track quickly became a favorite for rappers. As it climbed the pop charts on August 2, Sylvia Robinson, the singer and owner of Sugar Hill Records, hired a band to Sound-alike "Good Times" in the studio. Looking to cash in on the hip-hop trend, Robinson assembled The Sugarhill Gang to rap over the instrumental. They recycled phrases from other rappers like The Cold Crush Brothers.Toop, David. The Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip Hop. Boston: South End Press, 1984. It was a Top 40 single, and what had become passé in the Bronx exploded in popularity around the country. The arrival of mainstream hip-hop recordings has been described as "The First Death of Hip-Hop".
Another early rap record, from an artist in the disco scene, was Joe Bataan 1979 track "Rap-O Clap-O." Bataan had already achieved popularity within the Latin community thanks to his unique blend of boogaloo, salsa, and soul, and the song became a hit in Europe.
One of the composers of "Good Times", Nile Rodgers had been exposed to hip-hop in 1978 when Debbie Harry and Chris Stein from Blondie took him to a show.Pollock, Bruce. America's Songs III: Rock!. Taylor & Francis, 2017. 189. Rodgers and his co-writer Bernard Edwards sued Sugar Hill Records for copyright infringement and won songwriting credit on "Rapper's Delight".Demers, Joanna. Steal This Music: How Intellectual Property Law Affects Musical Creativity. University of Georgia Press, 2010. 91f.
In 1971, one city councilman had dubbed Philadelphia "The Graffiti Capital of the World".Janson, Donald. " Spray Paint Adds to Graffiti Damage", The New York Times. July 25, 1971. 31. It was one of the first hip-hop centers outside of New York, and by 1979, hip-hop recordings such as Jocko Henderson's "Rhythm Talk" and Lady B's "To the Beat, Y'all" were emerging from the city.Katz, Mark. Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. Oxford University Press, 2012. 101.
Mercury Records was the first Record label to sign a rapper. In 1979, they released Kurtis Blow's "Christmas Rappin'" which sold 400,000 copies. The song peaked at number 30 on the UK singles chart on December 15 that year and went on to become a holiday classic.Adler, Bill. " Every Year Just ‘Bout This Time, Kurtis Blow Celebrates With a Rhyme", Smithsonian. December 3, 2019.
Rhythm Composer]]As hip-hop became mainstream, it also grew vastly eclectic. Part of this evolution was enabled by technology. The 1980s saw the miniaturization of recording technology, making samplers, synthesizers, and drum machines affordable. Devices like the Akai MPC 2000, Linn 9000, and Roland TR-808 drum machine became beloved tools for hip-hop creators. The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Music Industry Studies. Springer Nature Switzerland, 2024. 340.
In 1980, the Roland Corporation launched the TR-808 Rhythm Composer. It was one of the earliest programmable drum machines, with which users could create their own rhythms rather than having to use preset patterns. Though it was a commercial failure, over the course of the decade the 808 attracted a cult following among underground musicians for its affordability on the used market, ease of use, and idiosyncratic sounds, particularly its deep, "booming" bass drum." Everything you ever wanted to know about the Roland TR-808 but were afraid to ask". Fact. January 16, 2014.Hamilton, Jack. " 808s and Heart Eyes". Slate. December 16, 2016.Norris, Chris. "
As rap matured, metaphorical lyrics about a wider range of subjects moved the style beyond the boasts and chants of old school. The influential single "The Message" (1982) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, with its focus on the misery in housing projects, was a pioneering force for politically conscious rap.Jon Pareles. " The Message From Last Night: Hip-Hop is Rock 'n' Roll, and the Hall of Fame Likes It", The New York Times. March 13, 2007. 3. Hip-hop continued in the tradition of rock and roll by outraging conservatives who feared romanticizing violence and law-breaking.Diawara, Manthia. In Search of Africa. Harvard University Press, 2000. 237.
Independent record labels like Tommy Boy, Prism Records and Profile Records became successful in the early 1980s, releasing records at a furious pace in response to the demand generated by local radio stations and club DJs. Producers like Arthur Baker, John Robie, Lotti Golden and Richard Scher pushed the genre in new directions.Toop, David. " A-Z of Electro", Wire no. 145. March 1996. Some rappers eventually became mainstream pop performers. The 1981 songs "Rapture" by Blondie and "Christmas Wrapping" by the new wave band the Waitresses were among the first pop songs to use rap.Edgers, Geoff. Walk This Way: Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and the Song that Changed American Music Forever. Penguin Publishing Group, 2019. 58.Gimarc, George. Post punk diary, 1980-1982. St. Martin's Press, 1997. 214.
Breakdancing remained the vanguard of hip-hop worldwide. Breakdance crews like Black Noise and Prophets of Da City in South Africa helped spread the genre. Hip Hop Africa: New African Music in a Globalizing World. Edited by Eric Charry. Indiana University Press, 2012. They recognized the connections in the African diaspora between practices like breakdancing and capoeira.Neate, Patrick. Where You're At: Notes from the Frontline of a Hip Hop Planet. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014. 186. Musician and presenter Sidney Duteil became France's first black TV presenter with his 1984 show H.I.P. H.O.P. on TF1. Radio Nova helped launch other French hip-hop stars including Dee Nasty. Along with his radio show, his Rapattitude compilations and 1984 album Paname City Rappin' popularized hip-hop in the country.
Hip-hop reached Japan by 1982 when DJs Hiroshi Fujiwara started playing it in dance clubs.Godoy, Tiffany. Style Deficit Disorder: Harajuku Street Fashion - Tokyo. Chronicle Books, 2007. 51.
Drum machine minimalism was typical for the new school, a stark opposition to old school's funk and disco breaks. New-school artists also made shorter, radio-friendly songs and more cohesive LP albums that became fixtures of mainstream music. Run-DMC's third album Raising Hell was the first in the genre to be certified platinum on July 15, 1986.Jenkins, Sacha, et al. Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists. St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2014. 280. It also featured the massive hit collaboration with Aerosmith on "Walk This Way". The same year, rap notched its first No. 1 album with Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill.Zwickel, Jonathan A. Beastie Boys: A Musical Biography. ABC-CLIO, 2011. xiii.
Rap was getting so marketable that it was being used in national advertising. Sprite hired Kurtis Blow to appear in one of their commercials in 1986. Other soft drink companies would soon follow.Klein, Bethany. Selling Out: Culture, Commerce and Popular Music. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020. 98.
New school rappers often established themselves by simultaneously honoring and battling their old school forbearers. LL Cool J relished sparring with Kool Moe Dee. The feud boosted sales for both artists. The cover of Kool Moe Dee's 1987 album, How Ya Like Me Now, featured LL Cool J's Kangol hat under the wheel of Moe Dee's Jeep Wrangler.Forman, Murray. The 'Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop. Wesleyan University Press, 2024. 165ff. LL's response was the vicious B-side "Jack the Ripper".Nelson, George. "Black: The Rhythm and the Blues - Kool Moe Dee, L.L. Cool J Get Busy." Billboard, vol. 100, no. 11. March 12, 1988. 25.
Samplers like the AKAI S900 and E-mu SP-1200 empowered creativity through greater processing power.Edwards, Paul. The Concise Guide to Hip-Hop Music: A Fresh Look at the Art of Hip-Hop, from Old-School Beats to Freestyle Rap. St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2015. 123. Breakbeats were no longer reliant on a DJ and two turntables. They could be made in seconds with a sampler. Marley Marl used samples in combination with drum machines to create more variegated grooves.Kajikawa, Loren. Sounding Race in Rap Songs. University of California Press, 2015. 74.
]]Cypress Hill was formed in 1988 in the suburb of South Gate outside Los Angeles. Brothers Sen Dog and Ulpiano Sergio (Mellow Man Ace) moved from Havana, Cuba to South Gate with their family in 1971. Droppin' Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture. Edited by William Eric Perkins. Temple University Press, 1996. 79. They teamed up with Lawrence Muggerud (DJ Muggs) and Louis Freese (B-Real), a Mexican/Cuban-American native of Los Angeles. After the departure of "Ace" to begin his solo career, the group adopted the name of Cypress Hill named after a street running through a neighborhood nearby in South Los Angeles. Latin Music: Musicians, Genres, and Themes. Edited by Ilan Stavans. ABC-CLIO, 2014. 201f. In 1989, 19-year-old Queen Latifah released her debut album All Hail the Queen.Jon Pareles. " Female Rappers Strut Their Stuff in a Male Domain", The New York Times. Nov 5, 1989. A29.
That same year, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences decided to create a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance. The inaugural statue was given in 1989 to DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince for "Parents Just Don't Understand".Reeves, Marcus. Somebody Scream! Rap Music's Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. 80.
There were strong themes of Afrocentrism and political militancy in golden age hip-hop lyrics. The music was experimental and the sampling drew on eclectic sources. There was often a strong jazz rap in the music. Notable golden age artists include Public Enemy, KRS-One, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B. & Rakim, Brand Nubian, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Gang Starr, Big Daddy Kane, Digable Planets, and the Jungle Brothers.Mervis, Scott. "
Albums became an important artistic marker during this period. 1987 alone produced landmark albums like Boogie Down Productions' Criminal Minded, Public Enemy's Yo! Bum Rush the Show, and Eric B. & Rakim's Paid in Full. The sustained artistic statement of an album became the genre's measuring stick.Williams, Todd "Stereo". " How Run-D.M.C.'s 'Raising Hell' Launched Hip-Hop's Golden Age", The Boombox. May 16, 2016.
Ice-T encountered censorship even during his live performances, much like Jim Morrison.Ice-T, and Heidi Sigmund. The Ice Opinion: Who Gives a Fuck?. Pan Books, 1994. 163ff. In reaction to Parents Music Resource Center's new "Parental Advisory" stickers, he rapped, "that sticker makes 'em sell gold."Ice-T. "Freedom of Speech", The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech... Just Watch What You Say!. Sire Records, 1989. His 1992 heavy metal song "Cop Killer" prompted so much backlash that Time Warner Music balked at releasing his next hip-hop album Home Invasion.Rule, Sheila. " Ice-T and Warner Are Parting Company", The New York Times. January 29, 1993. C6.
Both Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton criticized gangsta rap. Sister Souljah argued, "The reason why rap is under attack is because it exposes all the contradictions of American culture ...What started out as an underground art form has become a vehicle to expose a lot of critical issues that are not usually discussed in...a political system that never intends to deal with inner city urban chaos".Philips, Chuck. " Cover Study: The Uncivil War: The battle between the Establishment and supporters of rap music reopens old wounds of race and class". Los Angeles Times. July 19, 1992.
MC Hammer's third album, Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em, was a monster smash. It hit number 1 on the album chart. Its lead single, "U Can't Touch This", became a global phenomenon after it was released in May 1990. It reached the Top Ten in the U.S. and number 1 in several countries. MC Hammer was one of the first rappers to become a household name. Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em was the first hip-hop album certified diamond album by the RIAA for sales of over ten million." Elton, Boyz, Joel Among Diamond Honorees", Billboard. March 27, 1999. 80. By 1996, it sold 18 million units.Farley, Christopher John. " Rap's Teen Idols Return", Time. March 28, 1994.Cassidy, John. " The Talk of the Town: Under the Hammer", The New Yorker. August 19, 1996. 62. In November, Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" became the first hip-hop single to hit number 1 on the Billboard charts." First Rap Number 1 Billboard Hot 100 (Ice Ice Baby)". XXL. November 3, 2016.
Dr. Dre's The Chronic was released in 1992, establishing the G-funk style and going triple platinum. Snoop Dogg's 1993 album Doggystyle helped the subgenre continue to dominate the charts, but black radio stations kept hip-hop at a distance. Russell Simmons felt, "Black radio hated rap from the start and there's still a lot of resistance to it".
Despite the lack of support from some black radio stations, hip-hop became a best-selling music genre in the mid-1990s and the top selling music genre by 1999 with 81 million CDs sold.Batey, Angus. " The Hip-hop Heritage Society", The Guardian, October 7, 2010.Ta-Nehisi Coates. " Hip-hop's Down Beat". Time. August 17, 2007.Martinez, Michael. " The music dies for once popular 'Guitar Hero' video game", CNN. February 9, 2011. Archived August 11, 2011. By the late 1990s hip-hop was artistically dominated by the Wu-Tang Clan, Sean Combs and Fugees. The Beastie Boys continued their success throughout the decade crossing color lines and gaining respect from many different artists. Record labels based out of Atlanta, St. Louis, and New Orleans also gained fame for their local scenes. The midwest rap scene was known for fast vocal styles from artists such as Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Tech N9ne, and Twista.
from Geto Boys]]Southern rap became popular in the early 1990s.Burks, Maggie. " Southern Hip-Hop", Jackson Free Press. September 3, 2008. The first Southern rappers to gain national attention were the Geto Boys out of Houston, Texas.Lomax, John. " Mouth of the South", Houston Press. May 5, 2005. Southern rap's roots can be traced to the success of Geto Boy's early albums. The group's strongest member was Scarface who later went solo.Westhoff, Ben. Dirty South: OutKast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip-Hop. Chicago Review Press, 2011. 42ff
Atlanta hip-hop artists were key in further expanding rap music and bringing southern hip-hop into the mainstream. Releases such as Arrested Development's 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of... (1992), Goodie Mob's Soul Food (1995), and Outkast's ATLiens (1996) were all critically acclaimed. When Outkast won the Best New Rap Group at the 1995 Source Awards, it signaled a power shift in Atlanta's direction.Goldsmith, Melissa Ursula Dawn and Anthony J. Fonseca. Hip Hop Around the World: An Encyclopedia 2. Greenwood, 2019. 180.
During the golden age, elements of hip-hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music. The first waves of rap rock, rapcore, and rap metal went mainstream. Run-DMC, the Beastie Boys, and Rage Against the Machine were among the most well-known bands in these fields.Ambrose, Joe. The Violent World of Moshpit Culture. Omnibus Press, 2001. 5. In Hawaii, bands like Sudden Rush created the na mele paleoleo style which fused hip-hop with Hawaiian language and sovereignty issues.Akindes, Fay Yokomizo. " Sudden Rush: Na Mele Paleoleo (Hawaiian Rap) as Liberatory Discourse", Discourse, vol. 23 no. 1, 2001, p. 82-98.
New York hip-hop experienced a renaissance the following year with the release of two landmark albums: Nas' Illmatic and Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die.Osorio, Kim and Boo Rosario. " 1994: The (Second) Most Important Year In Hip Hop". The Source. March 2002. 180–3. The 10-member Wu-Tang Clan also started creating a hip-hop universe of solo albums that served as advertisements for each other. Some of the standout titles were Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..., Ghostface Killah's Ironman, and GZA's Liquid Swords. RZA had a hand in producing most of their efforts, and his style became massively influential.Vernon, Jim. Sampling, Biting, and the Postmodern Subversion of Hip Hop. Springer International Publishing AG, 2021. 92–7. Prominent producers during this period were DJ Premier (Gang Starr, Jeru the Damaja), Pete Rock (CL Smooth), Buckwild, Large Professor, Diamond D, and Q-Tip. Nas' Illmatic, O.C.'s Word...Life, and Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt all relied on this talent pool.Keyes, Cheryl Lynette. Rap Music and Street Consciousness. University of Illinois Press, 2004. 117.
]]A lazy media narrative emerged that rappers on the coasts were feuding with each other. As Kool Moe Dee and LL Cool J had previously found, playing into a rivalry was good for sales. It became fashionable to emphasize the east coast versus west Coast beef, but it did not remain a lyrical battle.Giannotta, Meghan. " East Coast vs. West Coast rivalry: A look at Tupac and Biggie's infamous hip-hop feud", amNewYork. March 8, 2019. On November 30, 1994, in New York City, Tupac Shakur was shot five times. He blamed the attack on a cohort that included Sean Combs and the Notorious B.I.G..Powell, Kevin. " Ready to Live", Vibe. April 1995.
Tupac left Interscope Records for Suge Knight and Dr. Dre's Death Row Records on the west coast. Tupac's February 1996 debut for the label, All Eyez on Me, was promoted by relentlessly highlighting his grievances with east coast personalities. The ploy was successful and led to monster sales.Brown, Jake. Suge Knight: The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Death Row Records. Colossus Books, 2002. 105ff. On September 7, 1996, Tupac was killed in Las Vegas. On March 9, 1997, the Notorious B.I.G. was killed in Los Angeles. Though the coastal feud involved dozens of people in countless imbroglios, the twin tragedies of Tupac and Biggie are at the core of the episode. Their deaths are used as markers for the end of the golden age of hip-hop.
In New Orleans, two upstart labels came to prominence. Master P built No Limit Records into a multimillion-dollar enterprise.Chappell, Kevin. " Master P Raps About His Rapper Son, His $500 Million Empire And Why He Cleaned Up His Act", Ebony. June 2002. 56–60. Cash Money Records supercharged its sales by signing a distribution deal with Universal in 1998. Their roster included Birdman, Lil Wayne, B.G., and Juvenile.Frederick, Brendan. " The No. 6 Biggest Moment: Cash Money Signs With Universal", XXL. February 7, 2008. In 1999, the slick consumerism of the jiggy era was indelibly rechristened by B.G. in his song "Bling Bling". The slang immediately resonated, and the "bling" label stuck." The Complete History Of 'Bling Bling'", The Fader. January 11, 2017.
Dr. Dre began 1999 by producing Eminem's debut The Slim Shady LP which went quadruple platinum." The Slim Shady LP", AllMusic. February 23, 1999. Accessed January 12, 2010. In November, he released his 6× platinum album 2001. Dre also produced Eminem's second album and 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin', which debuted in 2003 at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 charts." Chart History: 50 Cent – Billboard Global 200", Billboard. Accessed September 27, 2021.
During the bling era, it became commonplace to pair an R&B singer with a rapper. Either the rapper would appear in a remix of the singer's hit, or the singer would perform the hook on a rapper's song. Pairings included Ashanti and Ja Rule, Beyonce and Jay-Z, and Mariah Carey alongside a steady stream of rappers like Mystikal, Cam'ron, and Busta Rhymes.Princiotti, Nora. Hit Girls: Britney, Taylor, Beyoncé, and the Women Who Built Pop's Shiniest Decade. Random House Publishing Group, 2025. 78ff. Jay-Z became culturally dominant with his record label, clothing line, and various business interests. His albums consistently charted at number 1, and with the release of The Blueprint 3 in 2009, he broke Elvis Presley's record for most number one albums by a solo artist.Caulfield, Keith. " Beatles, Jay-Z Dominate Billboard Charts", Billboard. September 16, 2009.
When Kanye West's Graduation and 50 Cent's Curtis were both released on September 11, 2007, West's idiosyncratic album sold quicker.Sexton, Paul. " Kanye Defeats 50 Cent On U.K. Album Chart", Billboard September 17, 2007 West's next album, 808s & Heartbreak, was even quirkier and established a rush towards more creative hip-hop productions.Reid, Shaheem. " Common Praises Kanye's Singing; Lupe Fiasco Plays CEO: Mixtape Monday", MTV. October 3, 2008. West borrowed the Auto-Tune vocal effect that rapper T-Pain had popularized.Farber, Jim. " Singers do better with T-Pain relief", New York Daily News. December 11, 2007. T-Pain cites new jack swing producer Teddy Riley and funk artist Roger Troutman's use of the talk box as inspirations for his use of the technique.Lee, Chris. " The (retro) future is his", Los Angeles Times. November 15, 2008. Even Jay-Z began talking wistfully about making an alternative album.Kash, Tim and James Montgomery. " Jay-Z Hopes Bands Like Grizzly Bear Will 'Push Hip-Hop'", MTV. September 3, 2009.
The alternative hip-hop movement was not limited only to the United States, as rappers such as Somali people-Canadian poet K'naan, Japanese rapper Shing02, and Sri Lankan British artist M.I.A. achieved considerable worldwide recognition. In 2009, Time magazine placed M.I.A in the Time 100 list of "World's Most Influential people" for having "global influence across many genres."Spike Jonze. " M.I.A. - The 2009 Time 100", Time. April 30, 2009. Global-themed movements have also sprung out of the international hip-hop scene with microgenres like "Islamic Eco-Rap" addressing issues of worldwide importance through traditionally disenfranchised voices.Minister of Information JR. " Class Is In Session An Interview With Rapper Professor A.L.I.", San Francisco Bay View. May 20, 2011. Archived September 28, 2011.
]]Glitch hop is a fusion genre of hip-hop and glitch music that originated in the early to mid-2000s in the United States and Europe. Musically, it is based on irregular, chaotic , glitchy and other typical sound effects used in glitch music, like skips. Glitch hop artists include Prefuse 73, Dabrye and Flying Lotus.DJ Pangburn. " 5 Artists Who Are Masters of Glitch Music", Izotope. June 20, 2018 Wonky is a subgenre of hip-hop that originated around 2008. It differs from glitch hop with more melodic material and unstable synths. Scottish artists like Hudson Mohawke and Rustie are prominent in the genre.Jensen, Dylan. " Rustie’s ‘Glass Swords’ is Wonky’s newest answer to Dubstep", The Swarthmore Phoenix. January 19, 2012.
The subgenre known as crunk exploded in the 2000s when songs by Lil Jon and Ying Yang Twins became huge hits.Sarig, Roni. Third Coast: OutKast, Timbaland, and How Hip-Hop Became a Southern Thing. Hachette Books, 2007. 305. It originated in Tennessee in the southern United States in the 1990s, influenced by Miami bass.Adasco, Henry. " Crunk Music", LiveAbout. March 8, 2019. Crunk is almost exclusively "party music", favoring call and response hip-hop slogans in lieu of more substantive approaches.Miller, Matt. " Dirty Decade: Rap Music from the South: 1997–2007", Southern Spaces. June 10, 2008.
A variant of crunk known as snap music emerged in Atlanta in the 1990s.Conway, Rondell. " Oh Snap!", Vibe, June 2006. 132–7. The dawn of social media in 2003 spread the genre as artists like Soulja Boy started uploading their music directly to sites like YouTube and MySpace.Yoh. " How Soulja Boy & Myspace Brought Hip-Hop into the Internet Era", Djbooth. January 16, 2019.
Peer-to-peer file sharing also wreaked havoc with record sales.Blair, Elizabeth. " Is Hip-Hop Dying Or Has It Moved Underground?". All Things Considered. March 11, 2007 Digital downloads returned singles to the forefront of music sales.Noam, Eli M. The Content, Impact, and Regulation of Streaming Video: The Next Generation of Media Emerges. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021. 26. Downloads of individual tracks from Flo Rida's 2009 album R.O.O.T.S. totaled in the millions, while the album itself did not even go gold.Martens, Todd. " Better as a song or a ring tone", Los Angeles Times. April 30, 2009.
Despite the fall in record sales throughout the music industry, hip-hop artists still regularly topped the Billboard 200 charts.Sabbagh, Dan. " Music sales fall to their lowest level in over twenty years", The Times. June 18, 2008. Archived August 25, 2011. In 2009, Rick Ross, Black Eyed Peas, and Fabolous all had No. 1 albums.Caulfield, Keith. " Rick Ross Debuts At No. 1 On Billboard 200 For Third Time", Billboard. September 14, 2009.Caulfield, Keith. " Black Eyed Peas 'E.N.D.' Up At No. 1 On Billboard 200", Billboard. June 17, 2009.Herrera, Monica and Keith Caulfield. " Fabolous Tops Billboard 200; Jackson's 'Ones' Now 2009's Second-Best Seller", Billboard. August 5, 2009. Eminem's album Relapse was one of the fastest selling albums of 2009." Dizzee Rascal – Dizzee And Eminem Land Fastest-Selling No 1S Of 2009", Contactmusic.com. May 24, 2009. Archived March 14, 2010.
The internet corroded music sales but democratized distribution. Audiences started to find artists directly through music blogs and social media."
Major trap artists include Lil Nas X, Waka Flocka Flame, Future, Chief Keef, Migos, Young Thug, Travis Scott, and Fetty Wap.Unterberger, Andrew. " 2019 Was the Year That... Lil Nas X's 'Old Town Road' Put a Bow on the Decade", Billboard. December 13, 2019. Major trap producers included Metro Boomin, Pi'erre Bourne, London on da Track, and Mike Will Made-It.Gee, Andre. " How Metro Boomin Made Trap Music Sound Like a Symphony", Rolling Stone. December 7, 2022.Pierre, Alphonse. " Pi'erre Bourne's 10 Best Beats", Pitchfork. April 27, 2020.Germain, Tabie. " Hip Hop Awards 2023: London on da Track's Memorable Chart-Topping Hits", BET. September 12, 2024.Carmichael, Rodney. " How Mike WiLL Made-It And Kendrick Lamar Created The Year's Most Urgent Music", NPR. April 25, 2017.
Trap has been dismissed as "mumble rap" because of its often garbled diction.Paor-Evans, Adam de. " Mumble Rap: cultural laziness or a true reflection of contemporary times?", The Conversation. October 18, 2017. Snoop Dogg noted that he could not tell artists apart, and Black Thought lamented trap's lack of lyricism.Earls, John. " Snoop Dogg says new generation of rappers sound identical", NME. May 15, 2015.Lewis, Philip. " Black Thought On Mumble Rap: 'I Essentially Invented It'", Complex Networks. December 26, 2017.
Atlanta hip-hop dominated the charts during the 2010s.Wicker, Jewel. " Atlanta: the city that defined the 2010s and altered the sound of the world", Dazeddigital. December 17, 2019. On July 17, 2017, Forbes reported that hip-hop/R&B had usurped rock as the most consumed musical genre, becoming the most popular genre in music for the first time in U.S. history.McIntyre, Hugh. "Report: Hip-Hop/R&B is the Dominant Genre in the U.S. For the First Time", Forbes. July 17, 2017.
]]In 2021, Pop Smoke's posthumous album popularized Brooklyn drill.Shah, Neil. " Pop Smoke Has the Top Hip-Hop Album of 2021 More Than a Year After His Death", Wall Street Journal. July 15, 2021. The 2020s decade began with Roddy Ricch as the first rapper to have a Billboard Hot 100 number-one entry.Mckinney, Jessica and Kemet High. " What Will 2020 Sound Like? Experts Predict the Future of Rap", Complex. January 21, 2020.
Streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music became the dominant music distributors in the 2010s.Thompson, Bonsu. " How Streaming Revolutionized Rap's Album Rollouts On The Road To No. 1", NPR. September 28, 2017. The 2017 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album went to a streaming album for the first time, Chance the Rapper's Coloring Book.Havens, Lyndsey. " Chance The Rapper's 'Coloring Book' Is First Streaming-Only Album To Win a Grammy". Billboard. February 13, 2017. Artists like Kanye West and Drake started to eschew physical releases as well.Lockett, Dee. " Kanye Announces the Death of CDs (His Own, Anyway)". Vulture. March 7, 2016.Kornhaber, Spencer. " More Life Is Another Smart Career Swerve for Drake", The Atlantic. March 20, 2017.
Many hip-hop artists relied on SoundCloud to freely distribute their music without a record label. Post Malone, Lil Uzi Vert, XXXTentacion and many others started their careers on SoundCloud.Caramanica, Jon. " The Rowdy World of Rap's New Underground", The New York Times. June 22, 2017. In 2021, the most streamed rappers were Doja Cat and Lil Nas X.Devin. " Doja Cat Surpasses Drake as Most Monthly Streamed Rapper on Spotify", Rap-up. October 14, 2021. The most streamed rap album of all time on Spotify is XXXTentacion's second album, ? (2018).Lavarre, Carl. " Rap Caviar Names XXXTentacion’s ‘?’ the Most Streamed Hip-Hop Album on Spotify", Billboard. July 5, 2023.
In many Latin American countries, as in the U.S., hip-hop has been a tool with which marginalized people can articulate their struggle. Cuban hip-hop grew steadily during the Special Period that came with the fall of the Soviet Union.Perry, Marc D. Negro soy yo: hip hop and raced citizenship in neoliberal Cuba. Duke University Press, 2015. 71ff.
Brazilian hip-hop is heavily associated with racial and economic issues in the country, where a lot of Afro-Brazilians live in economically disadvantaged .Gates, Henry Louis. Black in Latin America. New York University Press, 2011. 219.
Puerto Rican reggaeton evolved from several genres, particularly Jamaican Dancehall and hip-hop.Castillo-Garsow, Melissa et al. La verdad: an international dialogue on hip hop Latinidades. Columbus, 2016.
Venezuelan rappers generally modeled their music after gangsta rap, embracing and attempting to redefine negative stereotypes about poor and black youth as dangerous and materialistic and incorporating socially conscious critique of Venezuela's criminalization of young, poor, Afro-descended people into their music.Fernandes, Sujatha. ''
]]Haitian hip-hop developed in the early 1980s. Master Dji and his songs "Vakans" and "Politik Pa m" popularized the style. What later became known as "Rap Kreyòl" grew in popularity in the late 1990s with King Posse and Original Rap Stuff. Due to cheaper recording technology and flows of equipment to Haiti, more Rap Kreyòl is growing.
French hip-hop also developed in the 1980s.Hammou, Karim. " Quarante ans de rap français". CRESPPA - Centre de Recherches Sociologiques et Politiques de Paris, 2020. The annual Blockfest in Tampere, Finnish hip-hop is the largest hip-hop music event in the Nordic countries.Siltanen, Mari. " Hiphop-festivaali Blockfest myytiin loppuun ennätysajassa", Yle. July 2, 2019.
]]Nigerian hip-hop gained popularity in the 80s, 90s and 2000s through artists like The Remedies, JJC Skillz, M.I Abaga and Sound Sultan, encompassing the incorporation of local languages and traditional hip-hop beats.Liadi, Olusegun. Popularity of Hip Hop Among Nigeria Youth: The Role of Multilingualism. Lap Lambert Academic Publishing GmbH KG, 2015.Adebiyi, Adeayo. " Hip hop is the genre that has fed most other genres - MI Abaga", Pulse Nigeria. March 25, 2024." Nigerian hip hop grows in popularity", BBC News. July 14, 2010. In the 2010s and 2020s it developed further with rappers like Naeto C, Reminisce, Olamide, Phyno, Blaqbonez and Odumodublvck.Tayo, Ayomide. " The Nigerian rapper with a coat of many colours", Al Jazeera. September 2, 2023.Okwuego, Oluchi. " Spotify hails Olamide as top street pop influencer", Voice of Nigeria. December 21, 2023." Blaqbonez is Africa's hottest rapper, whether or not he is releasing music", NotjustOk. April 10, 2024.Idawo, Anu-Oluwapo. " Nigerian Drill; Odumodublvck is the Heartbeat of Afro Drill Rap", Radar Africa. November 17, 2022.
South African hip-hop overlaps with kwaito, a music genre that emphasizes African culture and social issues. Rappers such as Pope Troy have harnessed the use of socio-economic issues plaguing the political spheres of South Africa and hip-hop as a whole whilst balancing his lingual approach in order to communicate with the masses about the technical aspects that are creating the issues," While Zuma is not the best president' he deserves respect' says rapper Pope Troy", Times Live. September 9, 2017. South African hip-hop has evolved into a prominent presence in mainstream South African music. Between the 1990s and 2010s, it had transcended its origins as a form of political expression in Cape Town to produce artists like HHP, Riky Rick and AKA. Prominent South African rappers include Stogie T, Reason, Da L.E.S, Cassper Nyovest, Emtee, Fifi Cooper, A-Reece, Shane Eagle, Nasty C, K.O, YoungstaCPT and Big Zulu.Kriger, Themba. " A Brief History of: SA Hip Hop", Red Bull. June 28, 2017.Hansen, Gabriel Myers. "
In the 2010s, hip-hop became popular in Canada particularly in Toronto, which has a large Afro-Caribbean and African population. The city expressed a new sub-genre called Toronto sound. After Drake achieved mainstream success, the Toronto sound began with works by producers T-Minus and Boi-1da.Cowie, Del. " The Decade in Canadian Hip-hop, 2010–2020", Socan Magazine. February 1, 2021.
Historical background
turntables with a Vestax PMC-06 Pro A mixer]]Hip-hop's initial medium was the turntable. Vinyl records were the primary source for DJs who reworked songs into new material for dancing. The process echoed the appropriation of styles that created jazz decades earlier. The genres hip-hop initially assimilated were wide-ranging, but its primary sources were disco and funk records.
Birth of hip-hop
Breaking
By the 1970s, The Bronx had been cut in half by the Cross Bronx Expressway. The construction accelerated "white flight" from the neighborhood and concentrated lower income African American, Latin Americans, and Caribbean residents in the southern half of the borough. This massive, multi-ethnic, working class community is where hip-hop was born.Trapp, Erin. " The Push and Pull of Hip-Hop". American Behavioral Scientist. 48 (11), 2005. 1482–1495.Leach, Andrew. " 'One Day It'll All Make Sense': Hip-Hop and Rap Resources for Music Librarians". Notes. 65 (1), 2008. 9–37. The traditions of these ethnicities all informed the emerging genre.Castillo-Garsow, Melissa; Nichols, Jason. La Verdad: An International Dialogue on Hip Hop Latinidades. Ohio University Press, 2016. ix.Thompson, Robert Farris. " Hip Hop 101", in Droppin' Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture. Edited by William Eric Perkins. Temple University Press, 1996. As all music does, hip-hop reflected the social, economic, and political realities of its creators, who were sometimes disenfranchised and marginalized.Crossley, Scott. " Metaphorical Conceptions in Hip-Hop Music". African American Review. 39 (4), 2005. 501–512.Alridge, Derrick P.; Stewart, James B. " Introduction: Hip Hop in History: Past, Present, and Future", The Journal of African American History, 90 (3), 2005. 190–195.Ogbar, Jeffrey. " 'Yele, Yele': Caribbean Identity and the Rubric of Race in U.S-Based Hip-Hop", University of Florida Digital Collections, May 2001.
Block parties
Outside of the dance clubs, the biggest incubator of hip-hop was the block party. DJs would hook their sound systems up to the street lights.Lee, Jennifer 8. " Tenants Might Buy Birthplace of Hip-Hop", The New York Times. January 15, 2008. One prominent host of these parties in the early 1970s was Disco King Mario." Hip-hop icon 'Disco King Mario' honored with street co-naming as part genre's 50th birthday celebrations", News 12. July 1, 2023.Abrams, Jonathan. The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop. Crown, 2023. As a leader of the Black Spades from the Sotomayor Houses, Mario relied on the gang to protect his events.3stacks, Andrea. " Beyond DJ Kool Herc: The Unsung Pioneers and Communities That Shaped Hip-Hop's Early Evolution", The Hip Hop Museum. July 16, 2024. Accessed June 3, 2025.Falls, Niya. " Forgotten Founding Father: Disco King Mario". Hip Hop Golden Age, August 16, 2019.
Rapping
Hip-Hop evolved without rap as a requirement of the genre, but the two terms became functionally synonymous.The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. " Rap". Encyclopædia Britannica. April 9, 2025. Hip-hop DJs continued the disco DJ practice of intermittently rapping with the crowd. As their duties became more complex, a Master of ceremonies (MC) was often present to introduce the DJ and hype the crowd. Yes Yes Y'All: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip Hop's First Decade. Edited by Jim Fricke and Charlie Ahearn. Da Capo Press, 2002. 128.
Recordings
Hip-hop was a live music genre for its first several years. By 1977, bootleg tapes made from the soundboards of hip-hop DJs were being circulated beyond New York City. The first dub recording, also known as a "mixed plate", was released by DJ Disco Wiz and Grandmaster Caz.Hess, Mickey. Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide: Volume 1: East Coast and West Coast. Greenwood, 2009. xxxiii.
1980s: The end of old-school
The period from 1973 to 1983 is referred to as "old-school hip-hop".Rabaka, Reiland. The Hip Hop Movement: From R&B and the Civil Rights Movement to Rap and the Hip Hop Generation. Lexington Books, 2013. 43. The genre exploded in popularity. Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks" (1980) was the first hip-hop single certified gold. The Anthology of Rap. Edited by Adam Bradley, and Andrew DuBois. Yale University Press, 2010. 24.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> The 808 heard round the world", The New Yorker. August 13, 2015. Archived May 4, 2020. Popularized by hits like Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing", it became a cornerstone of the emerging electronic, dance, and hip-hop genres.Beaumont-Thomas, Ben. " Roland launch new versions of the iconic 808, 909 and 303 instruments". The Guardian. February 14, 2014. The 808 was eventually used on more hit records than any other drum machine. Its popularity with hip-hop in particular has made it one of the most influential inventions in popular music, comparable to the Fender Stratocaster's influence on rock.Brabazon, Tara. Popular Music: Topics, Trends & Trajectories. SAGE Publications, 2011. 48.
Diversification of styles
Grandmaster Flash's "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" (1981) typified the diversification of hip-hop in the new decade. The single consists entirely of sampled tracks.Talbot, Michael. The Musical Work: Reality or Invention?. Liverpool University Press, 2000. 79f. Hip-hop and electronic dance music were fused in songs like Soulsonic Force's "Planet Rock" (1982). Bambaataa was inspired by Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Riot in Lagos".Brewster, Bill and Frank Broughton. The Record Players: DJ Revolutionaries. Grove Atlantic, 2011. He incorporated elements from Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express" and "Numbers". "Planet Rock" helped spawn electro music, which included songs like Planet Patrol's "Play at Your Own Risk" (1982), and C Bank's "One More Shot" (1982). Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 11: Genres: Europe. Edited by Paolo Prato and David Horn. Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. 220. This fusion would often overlap with Afrofuturism in songs like "Nunk" and "Light Years Away" by Warp 9.Toop, David. Rap Attack 3: African Rap to Global Hip Hop. Serpent's Tail, 2000. 146ff.Fitzpatrick, Rob. " The 101 strangest records on Spotify: Warp 9 - It's A Beat Wave", The Guardian. May 14, 2014. Electro helped spread hip-hop beyond America, when UK DJs like Greg Wilson started spinning records like "Planet Rock", Extra T's "ET Boogie", and Man Parrish's "Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don't Stop)".Wilson, Greg. " Electro-Funk – What Did It All Mean?", Electrofunkroots.co.uk. November 2003. Accessed May 25, 2025.
New school
: Joseph Simmons, Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell, and Darryl McDaniels ( from left)]]The second wave of hip-hop began around 1983–4 and became known as new school. The taunting and boasting of old-school hip-hop got more aggressive in the 1980s. New York artists like Run-DMC and LL Cool J typified new school.
Golden age
The period after hip-hop became mainstream in 1986 until the middle of the 1990s is considered its "golden age".Carl Stoffers. " Hip hop's golden age: Where are they now?", New York Daily News. November 27, 2015.Duinker, Ben, and Denis Martin. " In Search of the Golden Age Hip-Hop Sound (1986–1996)". Empirical Musicology Review, vol. 12, no. 1-2, September 2017. 80-100. The era is marked by increased diversity and innovation and the vast expansion of hip-hop's influence.Cobb, William Jelani. To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic. NYU Press, 2007. 47.Caramanica, Jon. " Hip-Hop's Raiders of the Lost Archives", The New York Times. June 26, 2005. Rolling Stone described the fecund era as one where "it seemed that every new single reinvented the genre".Coker, Cheo H. " Slick Rick: Behind Bars", Rolling Stone. March 9, 1995.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> From Kool Herc to 50 Cent, the story of rap – so far", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. February 15, 2004.Walker, Klive. Dubwise: Reasoning from the Reggae Underground. Insomniac Press, 2005. 249.
Gangsta rap
Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip-hop that reflects the violent environment of inner-city American black youths.Adaso, Henry. " Gangsta Rap", About.com. October 31, 2009. Archived May 14, 2011. Gangsta rap commingled stories of crime and street life with political and social commentary. The Cultural Territories of Race: Black and White Boundaries. Edited by Michele Lamont. University of Chicago Press, 1999. 322ff. In 1985, Schoolly D released "P.S.K. What Does It Mean?", which is often regarded as the first gangsta rap song. His lyrics reflected the street vernacular, including the word "nigga". Ice-T's "jaw dropped" when he first heard the song, and it inspired his 1986 track "6 in the Mornin'".Westhoff, Ben. Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap. Hachette Books, 2016. 50. Boogie Down Productions Criminal Minded (1987) set a precedent by featuring guns on its cover. On their 1988 follow-up By All Means Necessary, KRS-One is holding an uzi, but the album also sees the emergence of his anti-violence persona "The Teacher".Bascunan, Rodrigo, and Pearce, Christian. Enter the Babylon System: Unpacking Gun Culture from Samuel Colt to 50 Cent. Random House of Canada, 2010. 201.
.W.A is the group most frequently associated with gangsta rap. Their lyrics were incessantly profane and more violent, sexually explicit, and openly confrontational than their peers. These lyrics were placed over rough, rock guitar-driven beats, contributing to the music's hard-edged feel. Their blockbuster 1989 album Straight Outta Compton established Los Angeles as a legitimate rival to hip-hop's capital New York City. It also sparked the first major controversy regarding hip-hop lyrics, largely due to the song "Fuck tha Police". FBI Assistant Director Milt Ahlerich wrote a letter to Priority Records lamenting the album's "discouraging and degrading" impact on law enforcement.Ahlerich, Milt. Letter to Gui Manganiello. August 1, 1989.Ritchie, Ryan. " Eazy to be hard". Press Telegram. February 28, 2007.
Mainstream breakthrough
1990 was "the year that rap exploded". Public Enemy released Fear of a Black Planet, which was a critical and commercial hit.Jones IV, James T. " MAINSTREAM RAP;Cutting-edge sound tops pop in a year of controversy;Video's child take beat to new streets". USA Today. December 20, 1990 1.A. The Los Angeles Times declared, "an explosion of energy and imagination in the late 1980s leaves rap today as arguably the most vital new street-oriented sound in pop since the birth of rock in the 1950s".Hilburn, Robert. " Rap—The Power and the Controversy: Success has validated pop's most volatile form, but its future impact could be shaped by the continuing Public Enemy uproar". Los Angeles Times. February 4, 1990. Time concurred, "Rap is the rock 'n' roll of the day. Rock 'n' roll was about attitude, rebellion, a big beat, sex and, sometimes, social comment." Rap had the best-selling single of the previous year, Tone Lōc's "Wild Thing". By February 1990, nearly a third of the songs on the Billboard Hot 100 were hip-hop.Simpson, Janice C. " Yo! Rap Gets on the Map". Time. February 5, 1990.
East v. west
at the Virgin Festival in 2007]]In the early 1990s, east coast hip-hop was dominated by the Native Tongues posse, which was loosely composed of De La Soul, Prince Paul, A Tribe Called Quest, the Jungle Brothers, 3rd Bass, Main Source, and Black Sheep and KMD. Although originally a "daisy age" conception stressing the positive aspects of life, darker material soon crept in. In 1993, Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) pioneered a Hardcore hip-hop response to the west coast's gangsta rap.
2000s: bling and blog
Commercialization and new directions
Now a mainstream genre and dominating the charts, hip-hop became commercially oriented in the late 1990s. The musical approach was typified by Sean Combs who ruled the 1997 charts by repurposing old hits into new ones. Diana Ross' "I'm Coming Out" became "Mo Money Mo Problems". Herb Alpert's "Rise" became "Hypnotize". The Police's number 1 hit "Every Breath You Take" became "I'll Be Missing You". The shiny suits he and his protege Mase wore became a punchline for the period.Kelefa Sanneh. . Penguin Publishing Group, 2022. 301ff. The same year, Will Smith's single "Gettin' Jiggy wit It" gave a catchier name for the era.Adams, Dart. " Independent As Fuck: 20 Essential Underground Hip Hop Releases From 1997", Medium. November 2, 2017.
Alternative
]]Alternative hip-hop artists such as MF Doom, the Roots, Dilated Peoples, Gnarls Barkley, Mos Def, and Aesop Rock began to achieve significant recognition.LeRoy, Dan. " MF Doom". AllMusic. Accessed May 28, 2025.Cohen, Jonathan. " 'High School Musical 2' Starts Third Week At No. 1", Billboard. September 5, 2007. Other alternative artists like Outkast, Kanye West, and Gnarls Barkley also began to earn mainstream sales.Michel, Sia. " Critics' Choice: New CD's", The New York Times. September 18, 2006. E4. Outkast's 2003 album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below won Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards and has been certified 13× platinum.Gold & Platinum: " OUTKAST SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW", Riaa.com. Accessed May 28, 2025.
The internet sales decline
]]Social media led to the decline of fans purchasing physical media like CDs and vinyl. Starting in 2005, hip-hop sales plummeted, prompting concerns that the genre might be dying.Coates, Ta-Nehisi. " Hip-Hop's Down Beat", Time. August 17, 2007. While all music sales declined, hip-hop's losses were greater, totaling a 21% decrease from 2005 to 2006.Sanneh, Kelefa. " The Shrinking Market Is Changing the Face of Hip-Hop", The New York Times. December 30, 2007. 2006 was the first time in five years that the top ten albums did not include hip-hop.Milloy, Courtland. " Gangsta Rap, Dying in the Street". The Washington Post. September 19, 2007
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Where Are They Now? 20 Icons Of The 'Hip Hop Blog' Era", HNHH. April 29, 2020. Archived April 29, 2020. Emerging artists like Wale, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Lupe Fiasco, the Cool Kids, Jay Electronica, and B.o.B also possessed a sensitivity and vulnerability that was taboo in the bling era.Morpurgo, Joseph. " Good Kid, m.A.A.d City", Fact. October 23, 2012.Hoard, Christian. "Kid Cudi: Hip-Hop's Sensitive Soul". Rolling Stone, No. 1087. September 17, 2009. 40.Caramanica, Jon. " The Mining of Hip-Hop's Golden Age", The New York Times. September 12, 2008.
2010s–2020s: The streaming era
]]Trap music became a mainstream sensation in the 2000s, and started topping the charts in the 2010s.Patterson, Joseph. " Trap Music: The Definitive Guide", Topman. January 19, 2013." TRAP MUSIC: UNDER LOCK & KEY, DJ Magazine. February 28, 2013.Lee, Christina. " Trap kings: how the hip-hop sub-genre dominated the decade". The Guardian. August 13, 2015.Setaro, Shawn. " How Trap Music Came to Rule the World". Complex. February 14, 2018. It is typified by double-time or triple-time sub-divided , heavy from the Roland TR-808 drum machine, layered synthesizers and an overall dark, ominous or bleak atmosphere.Raymer, Miles. " Who owns trap?", Chicago Reader. November 20, 2012.
World hip-hop music
]]Hip-hop spread from the Bronx to the world. It is constantly being reinvented in nearly every country on the planet.Nawotka, Edward. " The globalization of hip-hop starts and ends with 'Where You're At'", USA Today. December 10, 2004. The one thing virtually all hip-hop artists worldwide have in common is that they acknowledge their debt to the Black and Latino people in New York who launched the global movement. The Vinyl Ain't Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture. Edited by Dipannita Basu, and Sidney Lemelle, Pluto Press, 2006. xiii.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Comparative Perspectives on Afro-Latin America''. University Press of Florida, 2012. 89.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> BET Hip Hop Awards 2023: All the winners", Music In Africa. October 11, 2023. Archived October 16, 2023.
See also
Further reading
External links
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