Hip Hop Culture

Hip hop was born on August 11, 1973, at a back-to-school party in the Bronx, New York, when DJ Kool Herc invented the technique of isolating and extending breakbeats — the rhythmic sections of funk and soul records — by switching between two turntables. From this moment, hip hop grew into a cultural movement encompassing DJing, MCing (rapping), breakdancing, and graffiti art. Hip hop became the best-selling music genre in the United States by the late 1990s, overtaking rock. Today it dominates global popular music — 7 of the top 10 streamed artists worldwide are hip hop artists. It has shaped fashion, language (hundreds of hip hop slang terms entered mainstream use), film, visual art, and political activism.