The Rise of Hip Hop

The brief history of one of the greatest genres of music in America.

Hailey Thomas

August 1, 2019

"Hip Hop is definitely not what it used to be, which was creative, original music." - Missy Elliot

The Beginning of Hip Hop

Now you may ask yourself, "Who even created hip hop, and how did it start?" Simple. The South Bronx community leader Afrika Bambaataa used the term ‘hip-hop’ for the first time.

One of the "Founding Fathers" of Hip Hop, Afrika Bambaataa

In the 1970s, hip-hop music came up. It was based on turntablism, the art of manipulating sounds to create music and the simultaneous looping of the break, an upbeat drum. Later this technique was combined with the rapping of MCs.

The period between 1970 to 1985 marked the old school era of hip-hop. The period between 1985 to 1993 was believed to be the golden age of hip-hop.

The four historic elements of Hip-Hop are MCing, also known as rapping, DJing, graffiti, an art that has derived inspiration from the urban culture and break dancing, which is also called b-boying.

The First of the Few

(left to right) DJ Kool Herc, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, and Coke La Rock.

Now while Mr. Bambaataa did create and "invent" Hip Hop, the first rappers were Coke La Rock and DJ Kool Herc. Coke La Rock is known for being the first rapper to ever rap after teaming up with DJ Kool Herc in 1973 and both are recognized as the original founding fathers of Hip Hop. Rap music was originally underground.

What is "Rapping"?

Rapping first gained popularity in the U.S. in the 1970s as a kind of street art, especially among African American teenagers. But it wasn't until 1979, when the Sugarhill Gang released their breakaway hit, "Rapper's Delight", that record producers took notice of this emerging musical genre. It is a culture and a form of expression that started in the late '70s as a social-political empowerment movement.

Rapping essentially involves the speaking or chanting of rhyming lyrics, often set to a beat. The rhyming created by rappers is considered by many to be one of the most sophisticated styles of poetry. What’s more, these rhymes often address provocative subjects such as sex, violence and socio-political issues.

By the 1990s, rap matured from an old-school-style – which was based on relatively simple lyrics – to a new-school-style, which was louder and included more complex lyrics.

It’s birthed new subgenres, such as mumble rap, rapmetal and rapcore; it’s infiltrated almost every genre at least once or twice (looking at you, disco, jazz, and reggaeton); it bridged the gap between spoken poetry and instrumentation.

Getting Down On the Dance Floor

Two B-Boys dancing around a group of on-lookers

Towards the beginning of the 1970s, Kool DJ Herc started organizing dance parties in his home. Parties shifted from home to outdoor locations in view of accommodating more people. Large groups of teenagers joined in.

They got an opportunity to constructively use their energy and express their opinions through dance. People break danced with each other instead of fighting. Hip-hop of the early years helped in decreasing violence, as it began to be portrayed through dance.

Hip hop dance as we know it today evolved from three underground dance styles: b-boying, locking, and popping. It then fused with the ideas and choreographic elements of jazz dance to create a hybrid dance form.

Eventually break dancing came up. The 1980s witnessed the inclusion of synthesizer technology into hip-hop. Many hip-hop films were released. Hip-hop came to be used for making social statements.

Speaking of breakdancing, in it's early days of getting popular, films and shows had presented the creative form of dancing. Flashdance, one of the most popular breakdancing movies, of course, didn’t invent breakdancing, but it was one of the first movies to popularize the street style and bring it to Middle America’s shopping malls.

Flashdance 1983 movie Breakdance scene "It's Just Begun" Jimmy Castor Bunch

Legendary Rappers

What makes a rapper great? There are a number of differing definitions and philosophies. Rapper J. Cole cites consistency as the most important attribute, and says it's important to look both for the big humorous "punch" lines as well as the underlying message of the rapper's songs. Nas focuses as well on the meaning of the songs, as well as the scale and ambition of the rapper's narratives and storytelling. (He has also gone on the record as saying that there is no such thing as the "best rapper" or "Greatest of All Time" (often abbreviated as G.O.A.T.))

Numerous different skills and attributes all must come together to make a truly legendary MC. Obviously, a rapper must display a sense of rhythm and an ability to compliment the beat in unpredictable and exciting ways. A gift for lyricism and vocabulary is similarly essential - you can have the flow of the century, but if the words don't come together to tell a compelling story or present a unique point of view, it's still not going to translate into a great hip-hop song. But of course there's also an intangible element that elevates some rappers into the ranks of the greatest of all time.

Before this list of amazing rappers is shown, I'd like to point out that these people are all based on pure opinion and their influence. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, so the rappers on this list may not be your favorite, or everybody's favorite, but they've deserved to be crowned the G.O.A.T.s of hip hop for a reason, not because of how trendy their music is, but how they've impacted hip hop in many different ways. There are many amazing and influential rappers on this planet, but this list includes old school rappers, new school rappers, and creative rappers.

Here are the best albums from most of the rappers listed below. This collage was created by the owner

Eminem
Tupac
Nas
The Notorious B.I.G.
J. Cole
Snoop Dogg
Rakim
Kendrick Lamar
Dr. Dre
Ice Cube
ODB
Jay-Z
50 Cent
Kanye West
Big Sean
Denzel Curry
Eazy-E
Andre 3000
Killer Mike
DMX
Busta Rhymes
Method Man
Mos Def
Ghostface Killah
Childish Gambino
MF DOOM
Raekwon
Big Daddy Kane

If you'd like to see many more of the greatest rappers of all time, here's a link to an article.

More Rappers

Hip Hop Across America

This map below shows all of the places that had anything to do with hip hop. Birthplaces of famous rappers, important spots and more!

Map of Hip Hop

When Hip Hop Blew Up

DJ Kool Herc is widely credited with kicking off the genre. His back-to-school parties in the 1970s were the incubator of his idea, where he used his two record turntables to create loops, playing the same beat over again, and extending the instrumental portion of a song.

From there, the Bronx sensation known as hip-hop was unstoppable. The 1970s allowed all the DJs to flourish, including other Bronx-based legends like Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. And although throughout the ’70s, the DJ was the dominant force, the MC also rose to prominence. Kurtis Blow was the first rapper signed to Mercury Records in 1979. The Fatback Band and Sugar Hill Gang released mainstream records, hitting the Billboard Top 40 in the following year. These records were mostly MC-driven because the most famous DJs of the time were uninterested in recording their music, preferring to gain notoriety through their parties.

West Coast v. East Coast

With the overwhelming popularity of rap, it was inevitable it would spread geographically. The late 1980s saw the emergence of what are known as some of the most famous West Coast rappers, Too Short, N.W.A., and Ice-T. These rappers came from economically depressed areas in Los Angeles and Oakland and their lyrics often were a reflection of their personal experiences. More controversial content and rhymes, including pimping, liquor, and other aspects of urban life that was not typically showcased on hit singles were features of their music.

The 1990s saw rap’s most famous split. Oftentimes, people still discuss personal rap preferences from this era and beyond in terms of East Coast versus West Coast as a result in the evolution in stylistic and content decisions that came from the geographic divide in the two hotbeds for hip-hop.

Aside from stylistic differences, there were also personal differences that caused the national rift, most iconically between Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., which resulted in their untimely (and unsolved) demises. Their murders, though, led to an easing of tensions and paved the way for their protégés and contemporaries, like Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg, to become popular on both coasts and helped rap transcend its perceived origins in violent inner-city neighborhoods.

Not Just For The Brothas

While the 1990s witnessed the battle of the coasts, it also saw the explosion of women MCs into the game. While there was plenty of content antagonizing women, a few stepped forward to shift the tone of rap music for good, paving way for female rap stars as we know it today.

Salt-N-Pepa, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, and Yo Yo got the ball rolling, while Da Brat and Lauryn Hill were some of the first to be officially recognized by mainstream standards, with platinum records and Grammys respectively.

Spread Like Wildfire

The diversification of the hip hop music genre began in the 1980s to include more involved and complex styles. Before the 1980s, the genre of music was confined in the US. However, it began spreading and became popular music in many countries. Due to the popularity of rap music, New school hip hop was born with early records of LL Cool J. The new school hip-hop was part of the golden age hip hop period which included innovation and creativity in producing hip hop music. Gangsta hip hop which focused on violent lifestyle among the youths also emerged in the late 1980s. In the 1990s, hip hop music started incorporating different styles including the southern rap. The popularity of hip hop continued through to the 2000s further influencing the mainstream pop. However, hip hop music is considered to be unnecessary noise with no clear message to the audience. Some of the rap artists include the use of vulgar language and cursing words in their songs that make some of the listeners uncomfortable.

Not Going Solo

Many rap groups have been made back in the day, and a majority reigned superior. Nowadays, however, rap groups aren't very favorable. Migos definitely is debatable, their music crossing over with Hip Hop / Pop, all of their songs basically sounding the same and talking about the same thing. ASAP Mob, however, features many of the best rappers of decade. Below are the greatest groups created, many of them being Old School.

Wu-Tang Clan (also one of the first rap groups, making them popular)
A Tribe Called Quest
Mobb Deep
N.W.A.
Outkast
The Fugees
Run-D.M.C.
De La Soul
Eric B. & Rakim
Geto Boys (from Third Ward Houston)
UGK
Public Enemy

Hip Hop Today

A comparison of hip hop lyrics between Tupac and Lil Uzi Vert

Many Old School 80s-00s Hip Hop fans, including me can agree on one thing. Rap and Hip Hop today is definitely not what it used to be. There were a few genres of Hip Hop and Rap back then, but many new styles have been added into the mix. Alternative Rap, Mumble Rap, Emo Rap, Country Rap, Trap, Lo-Fi Hip Hop, and SoundCloud Rap have recently became very common in the world of Rap.

When rap first originated it automatically gained popularity. 90s rap was like poetic hip hop, giving rappers the ability to express their artistic side with words. It was used as a voice to the world of hip-hop. Rappers used their music to give listeners a point of view of their world and struggles. RAP is an acronym for rhythm and poetry. Although most of today’s rap is not as poetic it used to be, both eras of rap are very influential.

Nowadays, hip-hop has faded to the underground and rap fills the airwaves. Typically, rap songs consists of three topics: sex, money and drugs. Very rarely is anything uplifting ever discussed, except in the case of songs meant to uplift one's self. Another con of modern day rap is the fact that hooks are often repetitive and simple. They usually have no creativity to them and are just simple. A hook should drive a song and add to the importance of the verses. But a listener would have to understand what the artist was saying to notice any of these things in the first place. With so much auto-tune and mumbling nowadays, it's hard to tell.

Most of today’s rap is not as uplifting as 90s music. Today’s rap artist like Kodak Black, Lil Yachty and Lil Uzi Vert are not motivational rappers or storyteller rappers that inspire people. Most of their songs are not lyrical or rhythmic, but repetitive. These rappers are known as “Turn Up” rappers. Rappers who make music just for entertainment only with no lyricism. These kinds of rappers do not put much work into their music. They just throw in a catchy beat talking about out their riches, drugs, and boasting their ego.

Not all today’s rappers are non rhythmic and repetitive. J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar are rappers who rap with a 90s vibe. Their songs contain great tempo, rhythm, and style. Kendrick Lamar and J.Cole are both storyteller rappers. Kendrick Lamar is described as Tupac’s reincarnation. He even described himself as “The offspring of the legacy”. Kendrick Lamar was even invited to the president’s house and rapped for Malia Obama on her birthday. Kendrick Lamar is one of the top Inspiring rappers today. He raps about wanting change and most of the songs he raps about do not contain him talking about his ego. J. Cole songs are deep and emotional, yet the songs are still entertaining to listen to. The hook of most his songs can pull you in and understand what he is going through or been through. Also Pro Era and The Internet are rap and R&B groups who rap with meaning. Their music is a mix of old school rhythm and a modern remix of jazz.

Although rap has changed over the years, there are still rap artist who rap to inspire people. Sadly, most popular artists today make songs that lack meaning once so prevalent in rap music.