What hip- hop means to us

As a party “G,” it ain’t hard to see, that a Cardi B is a part of me, Back to the Sugarhill Gang to Migos, This ain’t ego, this is how we grow… As Kool Moe Dee rhymes on his single “Body ’ Em,” featuring Earth, Wind & Fire, he speaks to the continuity of hip- hop amid all the changes and various styles since its arrival on the music scene.

Hip- hop undoubtedly started from humble beginnings in New York’s South Bronx with DJ Kool Herc and sound systems in the early 1970s. And from crimeridden, impoverished communities grew an art form that became a multibillion- dollar industry and the top- selling musical genre in the world. But how did all of this happen? Pure genius in terms of creativity and ingenuity.

Black and Latino youth put their energy into creating something from nothing. DJ Afrika Bambaataa was instrumental in converting members of street gangs such as the Black Spades and Savage Skulls into B- boys and B- girls. While DJ Grandmaster Flash developed the backspin, Grand Wizzard Theodore invented scratching. Coke La Rock became the front man as an emcee, but it was Melle Mel and his brother Kidd Creole ( later known as Danny Dan) who added the rhyming element and put their vocals on top of “break beats,” eventually becoming members of the legendary Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, the first rap group in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Hip- hop became a groundswell that forged its way into mainstream America and eventually around the world. The music not only inspired artists from China, Japan, the U. K., Nigeria and beyond, but also spawned an array of subgenres, such as drill rap, with artists who included Kay Flock, and instrumental hip- hop, with artists like me.

But the impact of hip- hop is best described by the legendary artists who put the genre on the map.

STEVEN FERDMAN/ GETTY IMAGES DJ Kool Herc attends The Source Magazine’s 360 Icons Awards Dinner at the Red Rooster in 2019 in Harlem, New York City.