PBS

Hip-hop was born 50 years ago. Nelson George discusses its evolution and legacy

Hip-hop is celebrating its 50th birthday. It started with a back-to-school party on August 11, 1973, in The Bronx. Clive Campbell, known as DJ Kool Herc, improvised and played snippets in a loop on ...
PBS

Hip-hop turns 50, reinventing itself and swaths of the world along the way

NEW YORK (AP) — It was born in the break, all those decades ago — that moment when a song's vocals dropped, instruments quieted down and the beat took the stage. It was then that hip-hop came into the ...
The New Yorker

For Elias Williams, the Hip-Hop Beat Machine Carries the Soul of Community

Hip-hop beat-makers are usually unseen. Not all sample-based producers are as reclusive as the torch-bearing loop artist Madlib, but even the most prominent among them are part of the backdrop. After ...
The New York Times

How Hip-Hop Changed the English Language Forever

In 50 years, rap transformed the English language, bringing the Black vernacular’s vibrancy to the world. “Dave, the dope fiend shootin’ dope.” — Slick Rick, “Children’s Story” (1988) “Dopeman, ...
Rolling Stone

Grandmaster Flash on Rap’s Earliest Days and Why We Need to Remember the DJs

HIP-HOP WAS BORN IN THE BRONX IN the summer of 1973. To celebrate the music’s 50th anniversary, “Rolling Stone” will be publishing a series of features, historical pieces, op-eds, and lists throughout ...