50 Years of Hip Hop

SHOW DISCIPLINE

Who would have thought Hip Hop would have made it this far? In 1973 Kool Herc started this whole culture that we love and adore. From Djing to breaking to emceeing, there were so many things to love about the culture and the art form. This amazing drama was born in the south Bronx on a Summer day in August.

People claimed that the music especially would be a fad and wouldn’t last but then came an artist like Kurtis Blow. Now we may make fun of or joke about how he rhymed but in that time he made it possible for Hiphop music to be seen as more of a fad. He went on to influence artists like RUN DMC. RUN DMC is the greatest example of a pure hiphop group with two emcees and a DJ.

The 80s were full of artists who could be creative with the young genre. KRS-ONE, Slick Rick, Kool G Rap, Rakim, Kane, and LL Cool J. Hip Hop also began to go mainstream. The Beastie Boys more than a white version of RUN DMC had entered the conversation and that also was good for the exposure of Hiphop. Another reason for the exposure was the regionality of music in the 80s. We started to hear artists like Ice T, Too Short, and NWA. These were west coast artists who had their own spin on hip-hop

The 1990s is when the music got elevated and more creative. There were artists all over the country releasing classic music from UGK to Outkast. There were artists in the Midwest like Common and Twista. The West Coast and The East Coast for better or worse took hiphop to a whole other level 2pac and Biggie was our Elvis and John Lennon.

The 2000s was such a colorful era in comparison. But once again the culture elevated. I believe this is the corporate era of hip-hop the peak of artists being CEOs on their own labels and doing their own deals outside of record labels. It foreshadowed the independence of the blog era of the 2010s. We saw Jay Z, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, Kanye, and T.I. all start their own imprints.

The 2010s were a culmination of all the years prior. This is where I feel like fans began to see what was behind the curtain as far as the industry goes. There were so many artists that emerged from independence or unconventional routes. It’s amazing that they thought it wouldn’t last Hiphop went from being played on the radio only on the weekends to having hiphop radio stations.