It’s a day that’s since become a thing of legends: on August 11, 1973, the seven-hour back to school jam thrown by DJ Kool Herc of The Bronx would lead to the birth of a genre that has become a universal culture of sound across the world.
Over 50 years later, hip-hop has grown into a dominating force in the industry while also being a source for Black musicians specifically to express their artistic creativity though the elements of emceeing, DJing, breaking, graffiti art and street knowledge.
RELATED: 25 Hip-Hop Songs That Represent Black History
For most students of the art form also known as rap, its origin point often leads back to the releases of “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang in September 1979 and the 1980 self-titled album by Kurtis Blow that produced hits “Christmas Rappin’” and more notably “The Breaks.” The former song brought hip-hop into the Top 40 on Billboard for the first time, while Kurtis Blow proved to be the first marketable solo rap star with the skills to go Gold. With their success saw the introduction of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Run-DMC, Kool Moe Dee and LL Cool J amongst others. As time went on, hip-hop only got bigger as each star of the genre kept pushing the needle of success further. From Public Enemy and KRS-One to Big Daddy Kane and De La Soul, the golden years of rap paved way for a cultural shift that led to regional stars from state to state, genre fusion from rock to R&B and ultimately a status as the most lucrative genre in music.
Surprisingly enough, elements of hip-hop existed in music well before DJ Kool Herc’s legendary party in 1973 that led to its commercial breakthrough in 1979. Disco, funk, jazz and soul were the predecessors of rap, each including a piece that would later come together to shape those first recordings. Elements of jive talking, spoken word poetry, talking blues, speak-singing and record-scratching were some of the earliest examples of what would eventually become known as hip-hop.
To commemorate the birth of hip-hop, we put together a list of songs you might not know helped to shape the genre into what it is today:
The Jubalaires – “Noah” (1946)
The melodic delivery in this classic gospel song is widely recognized to be the earliest example of rapping.
