Hip Hop Music

Hip Hop is both a music genre and a cultural movement developed in urban communities starting in the 1970s, predominantly by African Americans and Latinos.

Hip hop as a culture was further defined in 1983, when former Black Spades gang member Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force released a track called “Planet Rock”. Instead of simply rapping over disco beats, Bambaataa created an innovative electronic sound, taking advantage of the rapidly improving drum machine and synthesizer technology. Many credit the sensation caused by the track as another defining moment in hip hop music and culture. The mainstream media began to focus on one of the greatest impacts of hip hop; instead of fighting with guns and knives, former gangmembers had a new way of battling — through break dancing, rapping, turntable mixing, and graffiti.

By 1985, youth worldwide were laying down scrap linoleum or cardboard, setting down portable stereo and spinning on their backs in tracksuits and sneakers to music by Run DMC, LL Cool J, the Fat Boys, Herbie Hancock, Soulsonic Force, Jazzy Jay, btz , Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, and Stetsasonic, to name a few.

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