Hip Hop Music Player

Hip-hop was born on August 11, 1973, in the South Bronx, when DJ Kool Herc isolated and looped percussion breaks on two turntables at his sister's back-to-school party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. Grandmaster Flash codified the art of turntablism, Afrika Bambaataa connected the music to breakdancing, graffiti, and the Zulu Nation movement, and MCs turned freestyle rhyming into a discipline of its own. The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" (1979) was the first hip-hop record to crack mainstream radio.

Run-DMC, LL Cool J, and Public Enemy defined the 1980s, and Run-DMC's 1986 "Walk This Way" with Aerosmith was the first rap-rock crossover smash. N.W.

A's Straight Outta Compton (1988) ushered in West Coast gangsta rap. The 1990s produced Biggie's Ready to Die (1994), Tupac's All Eyez on Me (1996), and Nas's Illmatic (1994). The 2000s belonged to Jay-Z, Eminem, and Kanye West.

In 2017, Nielsen reported hip-hop had overtaken rock as the most-consumed music genre in the United States, and Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Cardi B, Travis Scott, and Lil Nas X have all dominated charts in the streaming era.

Hip-hop is arguably the most culturally influential genre of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It reshaped fashion (sneakers, streetwear, designer collaborations from Yeezy to Off-White), language (Black American Vernacular English now drives global slang), film (Boyz n the Hood, 8 Mile, Straight Outta Compton), dance (breaking is now an Olympic sport), and social movements (Black Lives Matter's soundtrack is overwhelmingly hip-hop). It gave voice to marginalized communities, transformed the music business through sampling culture and artist entrepreneurship (Roc Nation, Top Dawg, Cash Money), and produced some of the wealthiest entertainers in modern history.