Hip-Hop and Don’t Stop

Hip-Hop Day is August 11th. Hip-Hop has been around since the early 1970s and has influenced pop culture with its evolution. 

My introduction to hip-hop included artists like Queen Latifah, Missy Elliot, Salt n’ Pepa, and Busta Rhymes on MTV. 

According to the Kennedy Center, elements of hip-hop came together in the Bronx in the early 1970s and is credited with taking off at a 1973 dance party with DJ Kool Herc.  

DJ Kool Herc spun the same record on two turntables going between each and extending and isolating the percussion breaks. Other DJs were soon trying to outdo Herc and hip-hop took off. 

The Kennedy Center also states that today some hip-hop scholars include as many as six elements into hip-hop culture. 

Those elements include DJing 

MCing 

Breaking 

Writing 

Theater and Literature and Knowledge of Self 

Some notable days in the hip-hop timeline from National Today include Kurtis Blow’s single "The Breaks" becoming the first certified gold rap hit in 1980, the 1990 success of gangsta rap, and Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2018. 

Hip-hop’s influence can be seen throughout pop culture with the fashion, music, art, and b-boys and girls found all throughout the world.