Hip-Hop Turns 40

Hip-hop has left a legacy that seems to be growing with time. Throughout this month people have been celebrating Hip-Hop’s 40th birthday.

 

Grandmaster Flash

Everyone knows the names of the most well known Hip-Hop artists of today: Jay-Z, Kanye, Lil Wayne, Eminem, Drake and Niki Minaj, just to name a few. But to truly celebrate I wanted to have a full understanding of what Hip-Hop was before the money, glamour, bitches and pimps . So I went back to the days when Hip Hop was born.

“Let’s take it back (to the beginning). The August 11, 1973 rec room party in the Bronx is undeniably one of the  most famous parties in Hip-Hop’s history. Thrown by a father of Hip-Hop, DJ Kool Herc, it was here that Herc experimented with “the breaks” in records, elongating portions of them after noticing that dancers would choose certain points in a record to flock to the floor.” – pbs.org

But before that night, parties were bumping with the funky sounds of Motown. James Brown’s music used what would become an influential sound called “break beat”, a new dance style of “popping and locking” was being introduced and artists were using spoken word in their songs.”
 
Around the time of DJ Kool Hurc’s party in 73’, young Kurtis Blow, DJ Afrika Bambaata, and Grandmaster Flash spread the Hip-Hops sound of breaking and scratching throughout the streets. By the late 80’s Hip-Hop was no longer just a music style, it was an innovative life style.
 

The original flyer for what became the birth of hip-hop. - Upnorthrips

One by one, boundaries were being broken. Kurtis Blow becomes the first rapper signed to a major record label deal , The Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” is one of the first Hip-Hop singles to land on the Top 40 Charts, Salt n’ Pepa becomes the first well known female rap group, mainstream media gets its first taste of hip- hop on "Yo! MTV Raps.", and in 88’ DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince win the first ever Rap Grammy Award.

 

40-years later you, me and the world are celebrating the artists, the innovation, the sensation and the music that is, Hip-Hop.

 
References: pbs.org, about.com, npr.org