In August 1973, the Jamaican-born Clive “DJ Kool Herc” Campbell held his first block party in the Bronx, bringing the Jamaican sound system culture to America and inadvertently providing the first ...

When Sugarhill Gang’s 1979 hit “Rapper’s Delight” became the first hip-hop song to land on the Billboard Hot 100, it opened the door for the 1980s to be a massive decade for the new genre. Beginning ...

Wane One, Fab Five Freddy and Lee Quiñones recall evolution of graffiti In 1980s New York, hip-hop was the soundtrack of the city, blaring through the neighborhoods on boom boxes and blasting groups ...

From MPCs to FL Studio sessions, one thing remains consistent across generations of Hip Hop and R&B: The power of the sample. With that said, few eras have been mined more heavily than the 1980s. With ...

Even though it began 50 years ago in the 1970s, hip-hop music experienced a golden age in the 1980s and 1990s. And if the many classic albums, performances, and artists weren’t enough, there are also ...

What were the most important albums in hip-hop history? Rap was different before that album — and afterwards, it was forever changed? That's the question that Morning Edition posed to cultural critic ...

Kurtis Blow was barely 21 when “The Breaks” stopped hip-hop fans in their tracks. Released in 1980 as a follow-up to his debut single, “Christmas Rappin’,the song’s funky bassline coupled with Blow’s ...

Al Pacino’s iconic portrayal of Tony Montana in the 1983 film Scarface has left an indelible mark on cinema, but its journey from critical skepticism to cult classic status is largely attributed to an ...

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Some Hip-Hop artists are known for their bold, distinctive fashion that helps them stand out and amplify their personal brands. From Run-DMC’s adidas tracksuits in the 1980s to the blinged-out chains ...

In this powerful closing chapter of our Hip Hop Studies series, Dr. Reiland Rabaka invites us to step beyond the music and into the deeper meaning of hip hop as a worldwide movement for change. While ...