Hip-hop (also known as rap music or simply rap) is a genre of popular music that emerged in the early 1970s alongside an associated subculture in New York City. The musical style is a synthesis of a wide range of techniques, but rapping is frequent enough that it has become a defining characteristic. Other key markers of the genre are the disc jockey (DJ), turntablism, scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.
The hip-hop genre and culture emerged from block parties in the Bronx, with influences from African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Latino communities. DJs began expanding the instrumental breaks of popular records when they noticed how excited it would make the crowds. The extended breaks provided a platform for break dancers and rappers. These breakbeats enabled the subsequent evolution of the hip-hop style. Many of the records used were disco due to its popularity at the time. This disco-inflected music was originally known as disco rap and later described as "old-school hip-hop".
In the mid-1980s, hip-hop began to diversify as electro music started to inform the genre's new school. The period between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s became known as hip-hop's "golden age", as the genre earned widespread critical acclaim and generated massive sales. Across the United States, several regional scenes emerged, most notably on the East and West Coasts, as well as in the South, which included the Houston, Atlanta and Memphis rap scenes. This era saw the emergence of popular styles such as G-funk, boom bap and gangsta rap, as well as more experimental genres like alternative hip-hop and jazz rap, which stemmed from the Native Tongues movement, alongside progressive and conscious hip-hop.
In the late 1990s to mid-2000s, the popularity of hip-hop further expanded with the club-oriented "bling era". The late 2000s and early 2010s saw the rise of the "blog era" and Internet rap, with young artists using the Internet to cultivate a following. In the mid-to-late 2010s, trap music and Soundcloud rap surged in popularity, which led to several commercially successful artists. In 2017, hip-hop became the bestselling genre of popular music in the United States and had also developed its own regional variations around the world.
Etymology "Hip-hop" has been in use since the 17th century to mean a succession of hops."Hip-hop, Adv.", Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. December 2024.A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, vol. 5, H to K. Edited by James A.H. Murray. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901. 296. In George Villiers's 1671 play The Rehearsal, Prince Volscius exits a scene awkwardly with one boot on and the other off. The director of the scene exclaims, "to go off hip hop, hip hop, upon this occasion, is a thousand times better than any conclusion in the world".Villiers, George. The Rehearsal. London: Thomas Dring, 1630. 30.
A common variation on "hip hop" is "hippity hop", which was in wide usage by the 19th century. It appears in works like a poem from 1882 where four children sing, "[h]ippity hop to the candy shop!"Cummings, Elizabeth. "Spring Weather", Wide Awake, vol. 16. Boston: D. Lothrop & Company, 1883. 388–9 It was a common refrain in skipping games.Douglas, Norman. London Street Games. St. Catherine Press, 1916. 51, 76–7.
Many dance steps include a hop. By the 18th century, "hop" began to be used interchangeably with "dance" as both a noun and a verb."Hop, N. (2)", Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford UP, September 2024.
Usage
An early usage of "hip hop" in recorded popular music is found in The Dovells' 1963 dance song "You Can't Sit Down", "...you gotta slop, bop, flip flop, hip hop, never stop".The Dovells, "You Can't Sit Down". Parkway, 1963. A decade later, Disco disc jockeys would pepper their sets with exhortations to the crowd, which is why the emerging style was originally known as "disco rap". One of DJ Hollywood's chants was "hip hop de hippy hop the body rock".Lawrence, Tim. Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980-1983. Duke University Press, 2016. Lovebug Starsky recalls originating the phrase when he messed up the change between records, "I picked up the mic and just started saying 'a hip hop, hip hop, de hibbyhibbyhibbyhibby hop'","Hip, Hop, Hip, Hop Hibbyhibby Hop." The Observer. June 15, 1986. 27. claiming credit for inventing the name by 1979.Flipping, Robert Jr. "Hollyburgh Swingers 'If You Funk Us, We'll Funk You'". New Pittsburgh Courier, February 24, 1979.
In another version of Starsky's tale, he coined "hip-hop" with Keef Cowboy from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five as they traded jibes at a friend who was going into the Army.Caramanica, Jon. "Lovebug Starski, Hip-Hop Trailblazer, Is Dead at 57". The New York Times, February 9, 2018. B8. Kidd Creole recalls the scene without Lovebug present, "Cowboy was on the mic playin around doing that Army cadence: Hip/Hop/Hip/Hop...Disco was king at the time, and the Disco crowd referred to us as those 'Hip Hoppers', but they used it as a derogatory term. But Cowboy was the first one I heard do that to music, as part of his crowd response."JayQuan, "Remembering Keef Cowboy", Furious5.net. Archived March 17, 2006.Ewoodzie, Joseph C. Break Beats in the Bronx: Rediscovering Hip-Hop's Early Years. University of North Carolina Press, 2017. 129.
The phrase was in common usage by the time The Sugarhill Gang recorded "Rapper's Delight" in 1979.Chang, Jeff. "How Hip-Hop Got Its Name". Medium. April 10, 2016. The chorus begins, "I said a hip-hop, the hippie, the hippie/To the hip, hip-hop and you don't stop the rockin'".Sugarhill Gang. "Rapper's Delight". Sugar Hill, 1979.
By the early 1980s, hip-hop's definition had expanded into "the all inclusive tag for the rapping, breaking, graffiti-writing, crew fashion wearing street sub-culture".Holman, Michael. "An Interview with DJ Africa Bambaata of the Zulu Nation," East Village Eye. January 1982, 22. Afrika Bambaataa was instrumental in turning the term into a positive force through his Universal Zulu Nation.The VIBE History of Hip-Hop. Edited by Alan Light. Three Rivers Press, 1999. Their social movement was anti-drug and anti-violence.Stearns, David Patrick. "Hip-Hop Makes its Mark". News-Press, July 6, 1984. 43.Hager, Steven. Hip Hop: The Illustrated History of Break Dancing, Rap Music, and Graffiti. St Martins Press, 1984.
As rappers began to dominate hip-hop, the terms became synonymous. However, hip-hop's definition has always applied to its entire culture.Randel, Don Michael, editor. "Hip Hop." The Harvard Dictionary of Music, 4th ed., Harvard University Press, 2003.Tate, Greg, Light, Alan, Ray, Michael. "Hip-hop", Encyclopædia Britannica. Apr 14, 2025 Its four principal elements include rapping, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti art."Hip-hop, N." Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, December 2024.Kugelberg, Johan. Born in the Bronx. Oxford University Press, 2007. 17.Chang, Jeff. Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. St. Martin's Press, 2005. Knowledge is sometimes described as a fifth element, underscoring its role in shaping the values and promoting empowerment and consciousness-raising through music.Gosa, Travis L. "The Fifth Element: Knowledge." The Cambridge Companion to Hip-Hop. Ed. Justin A. Williams. Cambridge University Press, 2015. 56–70.
KRS-One identified additional elements: self-expression, street fashion, street language, street knowledge, and street entrepreneurialism. He also recognized girls' Double Dutch jump rope as a key stylistic component of breakdancing.McCabe, Allyson. "How the Fantastic Four took Double Dutch to new heights", Oregon Public Broadcasting. Dec 6, 2022.
In addition to borrowing from the culture, hip-hop simultaneously comments on it. From its roots in the Bronx to its current global reach, hip-hop has served as a voice for the disenfranchised, shedding light on issues such as racial inequality, poverty, and police brutality.Nasir, Noreen. "In the beginning, there was the Bronx", Associated Press. August 9, 2023.
Historical background
Hip-hop's initial medium was the turntable. Vinyl records were the primary source for DJs who reworked songs into new material for dancing. The process echoed the appropriation of styles that created jazz decades earlier. The genres hip-hop initially assimilated were wide-ranging, but its primary sources were disco and funk records.
Nowhere was this cross-pollination of musics better typified than in the Caribbean island of Jamaica, where AM radio signals from Miami, Florida, were audible. In the late 1950s, the U.S. stations played much more invigorating rhythm and blues music than the staid BBC which was syndicated by the island's only radio channel, Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation. American DJs like Jocko Henderson and Jockey Jack introduced R&B records and jive talking to the island. Local DJs soon began setting up sound systems for outdoor parties.Brewster, Bill and Frank Broughton. Last Night a DJ Saved My Life. Headline, 1999. A vibrant music scene emerged. The jive of American DJs transmuted into toasts in Jamaican Patois.Augustyn, Heather. "Spinning Wheels: The Circular Evolution of Jive, Toasting, and Rap," Caribbean Quarterly 61 (1). 2015. 60–74.
Jive talk popularized black-appeal stations in the post-war era. Its double entendres were a godsend to radio, re-invigorating ratings at flagging outlets. It emerged from traditions like call and response, signifyin', the dozens, capping, and jazz poetry.Hilmes, Michele. Radio Voices: American Broadcasting, 1922-1952. University of Minnesota Press, 1997. 273.Neumann, Friedrich. "Hip Hop: Origins, Characteristics and Creative Processes." The World of Music, vol. 42, no. 1, 2000, pp. 51–63. The transition from oral tradition to the commercial airwaves was exemplified by WDIA disc jockeys like Nat D. and Rufus Thomas. Their on-air jive was honed during their hosting duties at the Palace Theatre's Amateur Night on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee.Jenkins, Earnestine. "The 'Voice of Memphis:' WDIA, Nat D. Williams, and Black Radio Culture in the Early Civil Rights Era", Tennessee Historical Quarterly, vol. 65, no. 3, 2006. 259. D.J's like Chicago's Al Benson (WJJD), Austin's Doctor Hep Cat (KVET), and Atlanta's Jockey Jack (WERD) spoke the same rhyming, cadence-laden rap style.George, Marsha Washington. Black Radio...Winner Takes All: America's 1St Black DJs. Xlibris US, 2002. 100f They might introduce a great musician like, "Here is a guy that will move you in from the outskirts of town because he breathes natural gas...so droop to listening to a real gone cat whose loaded his knowledge box in the house of the righteous, and can lo blow."Dr. Hepcat. The Jives of Dr. Hepcat. Lavada Durst, 1953. 7. Many white DJ's like John R Richbourg on Nashville's WLAC emulated the southern 'mushmouth' and jive talk, and switched out swing music for blues and bebop."John R. Richbourg", Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame. Accessed May 21, 2025.Cox, Jim. Music Radio: The Great Performers and Programs of the 1920s Through Early 1960s. McFarland, 2024. 157f. The jive-talking rappers of 1950s radio inspired musical comedians like Rudy Ray Moore, Pigmeat Markham, and Blowfly, along with soul singer James Brown. They have been called "godfathers" of hip-hop music.