30 Facts About Hip Hop That Will Blow Your Mind

30 Facts About Hip Hop That Will Blow Your Mind

A musical genre is all about rhythm, language, and a little defiance. It’s known as hip-hop. Imagine a world where rhythms fill the streets and artists utilize microphones like magic wands to communicate their stories. Hip-hop began in cities, combining narrative with catchy music and a rebellious spirit.

However, it is more than simply music; it is a strong voice and a cultural movement, and it is still affecting our world today. Prepare to enter the fascinating hip-hop world, where every song and rhythm tells a narrative.

1. African-American artists bore hip hop

Photo by Aleksandr Popov on Unsplash

Hip-hop emerged as a musical genre and a culture in the 1970s, when block parties were more popular in New York City, notably among African-American adolescents in the Bronx. DJs used two turntables and a DJ mixer to play percussion breaks from two versions of the same record, rotating from one to the other and lengthening the “break” at block parties.

As sampling technology and drum machines became more widely available and inexpensive, hip hop’s early development happened. Along with the breaks, turntablist techniques like scratching and beatmatching evolved. Rapping began as a vocal technique in which the performer spoke or chanted rhythmically to an instrumental or synthetic beat.

2.  Old-school hip-hop was the first mainstream wave of the genre

Hip-hop music was not formally recorded for radio or television play until 1979, owing to the genre’s early poverty and lack of popularity outside of ghetto communities. Old-school hip-hop was the genre’s first popular wave, distinguished by its disco influence and party-oriented lyrics.

Old-school hip-hop generally refers to music produced between 1979 and 1983, as well as any hip-hop that does not correspond to current trends. It is distinguished by more basic rapping styles of the era and a general emphasis on party-related subject matter. The words of old-school rap songs were largely unimportant.

3. New-school hip hop was the genre’s second wave and it was unique

LL Cool J 2017.jpg U.S. State Department, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The new school of hip-hop was a hip-hop music trend that began in 1983-84 with the early releases of Run-D.M.C., Whodini, and LL Cool J. It was characterized by drum machine-led minimalism, frequently flavored with rock overtones; rapped taunts, boasts, and socio-political criticism; and aggressive, self-assertive delivery. Its musicians portrayed a strong, cool, street b-boy mentality in song and image.

These components stood in stark contrast to the early 1980s’ funk and disco, novelty songs, live bands, synthesizers, and party rhymes of singers. In comparison to their previous hip-hop contemporaries, new school musicians created more unified LPs and shorter tracks that were more conducive to airtime. By 1986, their albums had begun to establish hip-hop as a popular genre.

4. Hip-hop developed from different musical genres

Hip-hop evolved from funk, blues, jazz, and rhythm and blues recordings from the 1960s, 1950s, and earlier, including many tracks by Bo Diddley. Some critics consider Muhammad Ali‘s 1963 spoken-word album I Am the Greatest to be an early example of hip hop. The 1968 track “Here Comes the Judge” by Pigmeat Markham is one of numerous songs claimed to be the first hip-hop record.

Before hip hop, there were spoken-word performers like the Last Poets, who released their debut album in 1970, and Gil Scott-Heron, who garnered popularity with his 1971 composition “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” These performers fused spoken word and music to create a “proto-rap” feel.

5. Block parties have been greatly credited to have advertised hip-hop 

A block party or street party is a gathering of numerous people from a single community, either to commemorate an important occasion or just for mutual solidarity and fun. Block parties became extremely popular in New York City in the 1970s, notably among African-American, Caribbean, and Latino teenagers in the Bronx.

Block parties included DJs who performed popular music genres, including funk and soul. Because of the strong response, DJs began separating popular songs’ percussion breakdowns. This approach was popular in Jamaican dub music and was widely adopted in New York by Caribbean immigrants, notably hip-hop pioneer DJ Kool Herc.

6. DJ Kool Herc is recognized as one of the earliest hip-hop DJs

Kool Herc.jpg Minusbaby at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Clive Campbell, best known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc, is a Jamaican-American DJ who helped pioneer hip-hop music in the 1970s in the Bronx, New York City. Campbell dubbed the “Father of Hip-Hop,” began playing strong funk tunes similar to those of James Brown.

Campbell started to isolate the instrumental piece of the album that accentuated the drum beat—the “break“—and alternate between them. Using the same two-turntable setup as disco DJs, he extended the break by playing two versions of the same record. Hip-hop music was founded on breakbeat DJing with funky drum solos.

Campbell’s pronouncements and exhortations to dancers aided in the development of the syncopated, rhythmically spoken accompaniment known as rapping. On May 3, 2023, Campbell was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Musical Influence Award category.

7. The break is the blueprint of hip-hop music

DJ Kool Herc created the style that became the standard for hip-hop music. Herc utilized the album to highlight a brief, extremely percussive section: the “break.” Because the dancers like this section of the album, Herc isolated it and extended it by switching between two record players.

He cued a second record back to the beginning of the break as one record reached the end of the break, allowing him to turn a very brief portion of music into a “five-minute loop of fury.” This idea was inspired by Herc’s “The Merry-Go-Round,” a method in which the deejay went from break to break during the peak of the party.

According to Herc, this method is dubbed “The Merry-Go-Round” because it takes one “back and forth with no slack.” Herc said that he initially used the Merry-Go-Round in his shows in 1973. The first known Merry-Go-Round featured James Brown’s “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose” (with the refrain, “Now clap your hands! Stomp your feet!“), before moving from that song’s break into the break from a second record, The Incredible Bongo Band’s “Bongo Rock.”

8. Emceeing is the second key musical element in hip-hop

Emceeing is the rhythmic delivery of rhymes and wordplay, initially without accompaniment and subsequently over a beat. This spoken style was influenced by the African American style of “capping,” a performance in which men strove to outdo each other in terms of originality of vocabulary and obtain the favor of the listeners.

Raps, competing “posses” (groups), uptown “throw-downs,” and political and social criticism were all prevalent in African-American music for a long time. Emceeing and rapping performers alternated between songs loaded with boasting,’ slackness,’ and sexual innuendo, and a more topical, political, and socially concerned approach.

Originally, the MC served as the Master of Ceremonies for a DJ dance event. The MC would introduce the DJ and attempt to energize the audience. Between the DJ’s tunes, the MC encouraged everyone to get up and dance. MCs would also crack jokes and utilize passionate language and excitement to energize the audience. This introduction function eventually evolved into lengthier sessions of verbal, rhythmic banter, and rhyming, which evolved into rapping.

9. Hip-hop was used as a creative measure to curb crime

Street gangs were prominent in the South Bronx’s squalor, and much of the graffiti, rapping, and b-boying at these events were creative twists on street gang competitiveness and one-upmanship. Afrika Bambaataa formed the Zulu Nation, a loose confederation of street dance teams, graffiti artists, and rap singers, after sensing that gang members’ frequently violent desires might be channeled into creative ones.

By the late 1970s, the culture had attracted mainstream notice, with Billboard magazine publishing an article titled “B Beats Bombarding Bronx” that commented on the local phenomena and included key personalities such as Kool Herc. During the 1977 New York City blackout, there was extensive looting, arson, and other citywide disturbances, particularly in the Bronx, where several looters stole DJ equipment from electronics stores. As a result, the hip-hop genre, which was little known outside of the Bronx at the time, expanded at an incredible rate from 1977 to the present.

10. The lyrical content of many early rap groups focused on social issues

Many early rap groups’ lyrical material focused on social themes, most notably in the groundbreaking tune “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, which exposed the reality of living in the housing projects. “Young black Americans coming out of the civil rights movement have used hip hop culture in the 1980s and 1990s to show the limitations of the Hip Hop Movement.”

Hip-hop provided young African Americans with a platform to voice their concerns; “Like rock and roll, hip-hop is fiercely opposed by conservatives because it romanticizes violence, law-breaking, and gangs.” It also provided people with the opportunity to profit financially by “reducing the rest of the world to consumers of its social concerns.”

11. Boxer Muhammad Ali greatly influenced several elements of hip-hop

Muhammad Ali 1971 Press Photo.jpg AP Wirephoto, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

As a boxer, he became an influential African-American celebrity. He was featured in almost all boxing and media interviews. In hip-hop, he became popular in the 1960s because of being a rhyming trickster. He always used a funky delivery in his comments. He was full of boasts, Comic trash talks, and endless quotable lines.

Ali influenced people like Rolling Stone who would later admit that his freestyle skills, flow, rhymes, flow, and braggadocio (a skill of boasting about oneself physically, financial riches, sexual prowess, or coolness in rap battle) could not be beaten. He cited that it was thanks to Boxer Ali that he was able to learn this skill and manipulate it to become unbeaten in the hip-hop industry. Rolling Stone added that his skills would one day become typical of old-school MCs like Run-DMC and LL Cool J. 

12. Hip-hop evolved when technology and drum machines became widely available

Photo by Kristyn Tabboga on Unsplash

Yes, Hip-hop’s early evolution occurred around the time when sampling and drum machines became widely available to the general public. Remember most of the block states in the United States then were inhabited by poor African Americans, most of them being on gangs that believed in crime. So, technology finally was available to everybody interested at an affordable cost. Drum machines and samplers then were connected to other machines which became known as Music Production Centers (MPCs). 

The early exam for an MPC is the Linn 9000. The Linn 9000 was manufactured by Linn Electronics as the successor of the LinnDrum. The first sampler that was broadly adopted to create hip-hop was the Mellotron. It was used together with the TR-808.

13. The roots of rapping are traced back to traditional African music

Some of us may be wondering where the black races came from. Well, here is a brief history of how the amazing black culture reached the overseas soil. During the triangular trade plantations in most parts of the USA were blooming but the industrial revolution had not yet reached the area. So, slaves were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to provide cheap labor at the plantations. Soon after intermarriages between the white race and the black race happened and the African American race was born. Soon after jazz music was born which became a genre of old-school hip-hop. 

African music particularly the riots of West African Culture is credited to be the root of old-school hip-hop. The African American traditions of signifying, the dozens, and jazz poetry all influence hip-hop music.

14. Hip-hop was not invented by only African-American artists

I strongly stress the idea that hip-hop was a collaborative effort of different cultures. As a music and culture, it was formed in the 1970s in New York City, from the multicultural exchange between the African American youth from the United States and young immigrants and children immigrants from countries in the Caribbean. Some were influenced by the vocal styles of the earliest African-American radio MCs which could be heard over the radio in Jamaica.

15. The Great Wuga Wuga was the first record by Jamaican DJs

Sir Lord Comic, one of the original Jamaican deejays recorded the Great Wuga Wuga in 1967. The song came as part of the local dance hall culture. It features specials, unique mixes, or versions pressed on soft discs or acetate discs, and rappers such as King Stitt, Count Machuki, U-Roy, I-Roy, Big Youth, and many others.

16. Hip-hop was seldom recorded by solo artists when it arose

Even though some early MCs recorded solo projects if note like DJ Hollywood, Kurtis Blow, and Spoonie Gee, the frequency of of solo artists did not increase gradually. Most of early hip hop was dominated by groups where collaboration between the members was integral to the show. Solo artists increased later with the rise of soloists with stage presence and drama, such as LL Cool J. An example of an early hip-hop group was the Funk Four Plus One. The group performed in Saturday Night Live in 1981.

17. Dj Disco Wiz is the first hip-hop DJ to create a mixed plate 

Luis Cedeño by stage name Dj Disco Wiz is an American DJ born to a Puerto Rican father and Cuban mother. He was inspired by a Kool Herc jam by the emerging hip-hop movement in the Bronx where he was born. 

After the inspiration, DJ Disco Wiz then formed a coalition with his best friend, Casanova Fly because then hip hop as we said early was a group presentation at the time it was starting. The group was called the Mighty Force crew. The group is noted as one of the first hip-hop DJ crews in the mid-late 1970s with Dj Disco Wiz as a member.

In 1977, Disco Wiz created a mixed plate or mixed dub recording when he combined sound bites, special effects, and paused beats to technically produce a sound recording.

18. The first hip-hop record was Sugarhill Gang’s Rappers Delight

The Sugarhill Gang (52790148289).jpg Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip-hop group formed in 1979 in Eagle Wood, New Jersey. The notable members of the gang were Michael “Wonder Mike” Wright, Henry “Big Bank Hank” Jackson, and Guy “Master Gee” O’Brien.

Their 1979 hit the same year they were founded, Rapper’s Delight, was the first rap single to become a top 40 hit on the Billboard Hit 100. The group had multiple European hits though they never defeated the first one nor did they appear top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100.

19. Disco Music had a great influence on hip-hop

Kurtis Blow im Musiktheater Bad (Hannover, Germany), 2012-03-30.JPG Ferhat Ataman, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Disco music did indeed influence the growth of hip-hop. Disco emphasized the key role of the DJ in creating tracks and mixes for dancers. This also happened in old-school hip-hop. According to Curtis Blow, the early days of hip-hop were the characteristics of divisions between fans and detractors of disco music. 

Hip-hop had at large emerged as a direct response to disco music. The earliest hip-hop was mainly based on hard funk loops sourced from vintage funk records. By 1979, disco instrumental trucks had become the basis of much hip-hop music, “disco rap“.

20. The 1980s marked the diversification of hip-hop

Hip Jo started developing more complex styles in the 1980s. This marked a new era for the hip-hop industry and it was starting to get interesting. New York City was therefore implicated as a laboratory for the creation of new hip-hop sounds. Tracks such as “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel” (1981) have diversified sounds in them. 

The mid-1980s marked a paradigm shift in the development of hip-hop. It introduced samples of rock music which are demonstrated in albums like; King of Rock and Licensed to Ill.

21. Hip hop has kept a close relationship with the Latino community in NY

DJ Disco Wiz and the Rock Steady Crew were among the earliest indicators from Puerto Rico. They combined English and Spanish in their lyrics. The mean-time machine recorded their first song under the label “Disco Dreams” in 1981. Kid Frost from LA started his career in hip hop in 1982. Cypress Hill was formed in 1988 in the suburb of South Gate in Los Angeles. Cypress was formed when Senen Reyes and his younger brother moved from Cuba to South Gate with his family in 1971. They teamed up with the DVX from Queens (NY), DJ Muggs, and B-Real.

22. Hiroshi Fujiwara is said to have brought hip-hop to Japan

Japanese hip-hop began in early 1989. This is when Hiroshi Fujiwara returned to Japan and started playing hip-hop records. Japanese hip-hop generally tends to be the most directly influenced by old-school hip-hop. It takes the era’s catchy beats and dance culture. Hip-hop became one of the most commercially viable mainstream music genres in Japan. 

23. Nas is regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop rappers of all time

Nas, real name Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, is an American rapper who is rooted in East Coast hip hop. He is the son of a jazz musician, Oli Dara. Nas began his career in 1989 when he recorded demos for Large Professor under the stage name “Nasty Nas”. 

His debut album Illmatic released in 1994 received universal acclaim as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time. The album was inducted into the Library Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2020.

24. Tupac Shakur is the most influential hip-hop rapper of all time

Tupac Amaru Shakur AKA 2Pac and Makavelu was an American rapper. His stage name Makaveli has been certified platinum in the US. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In. In 2023 he was awarded Posthumous Star of the Hollywood Hall of Fame. 

2Pac is considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. He was among the best-selling music artists of all time. He sold over 75 million records worldwide. His music most times addressed social issues that affected inner cities. He is considered an activist because he was head-on with the unjust that black youths face in society. 

25. Gangsta rap is indicted for lack of peace in the US

Gangsta rap has been many times been accused of promoting disorderly conduct and broad criminality. Some of the vices it has been arraigned with are assault, homicide, drug dealing as well as misogyny, promiscuity, and materialism. 

Its defenders always characterized it as an artistic depiction but not a literal endorsement of real life in American Ghettos. They are trying to wash out all the social injustice in the American ghettos such as police brutality, hypocrisy, and racism.

People like Calvin Butts, Spike Lee, and activist C. Delores Tucker are some of the black figures that are against the gangsta rap. By chance, hip hop is being looked upon by some people which is a setback to the industry as far as hip hop is concerned.

26. Hip-hop started declining in sales at the start of 2005

Sales of hip-hop music in the US started to war badly as of 2005. Time magazine the then hip hop watchdog started to question if the hip hop mainstreaming was declining. As per Billboard magazine, rap sales dropped by 44% since 2000. This was a setback to music sales at large which was lowered to 10%.

Courtland Milloy of the Washington Post said that it was the first time in five years that no rap albums were among the top ten sellers in 2006. The lack of hip-hop sampling which was a key element has been noted for the decrease in quality of modern hip-hop.

27. Trap music is a subgenre of southern rap that originated in the 1990s

Trap music grew in the 2000s. It was soon becoming a mainstream sensation that everybody loved. It reached ubiquity in the mid-late 2010s. The majority of the two songs produced in this era topped the Billboard hip charts. The strong influence of the sound led other artists within the genre to love the trap sounds. Jay-Z was one of the victims.

The trap had double or triple sub-divided hi-hats, heavy kick drums, layered synthesizers, and an overall dark, bleak atmosphere. It was good music to listen to as it is now.

28. Trap music saw the rise of several artists

Lil Uzi Vert 2018.png ICEBOX, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Major artists that arose from the genre in 2010 include; Lil Has X, Waka Flocka Flame, Future, Chief Keef, Migos, Young Thug, Travis Scott, Kodak Black, 21Savage, Yung Lean, Lil Uzi Vert, XXXTentacion, Ski Mask The Slump God, Tekashi 6ix9ine, NBA YoungBoy, Lil Baby, Fetty Wap, Rae Sremmurd, Trippie Red, Smokepurpp, King Von, and Juice wrld among others like Nasty C, Blueface, And 1Takejay

Female rappers include; Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Saweetie, Doja Cat, Iggy Azalea, City Girls, and Megan There Stallion among others.

29. Hip-hop has had several fallen soldiers

Juice Wrld VMAs.png MTV International, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It’s quite sad and devastating that I am writing this part but it is essential and it is a must because it is one way to remember some of our young rappers who lost their lives while they were still pursuing this career. All of them those who will be featured in this clause as those who will not appear are important as far as the entertainment industry in the hip-hop genre is concerned.

Those rappers who died of homicide are Tupac Shakur(25), The Notorious B.I.G (24), Nipsey (33), XXXTentacion (20), Pop Smoke (20), King Von (26), and Take Off (28). Rappers who died of drug overdose include, Mac Miller (26), Juice Wrld (21), DMX (50), and Lil Pop (21)

30. Hip-hop has reached the cultural corridors of the globe

Hip-hop music has expanded beyond the US. Hip-hop has globalized into many cultures worldwide. It has emerged globally as a movement based upon the main tenets of hip-hop culture. In Europe, Africa, and Asia, hip-hop was the domain of both ethnic nationals and immigrants. One of the countries outside the US where hip hop is most popular is the UK.

Hip-hop, which emerged in the 1970s from the colorful streets of New York City, is more than simply music; it is a cultural revolution that has left an everlasting effect on the world. Hip-hop transcends boundaries, challenges norms, and resonates with millions thanks to its addictive beats, passionate lyrics, and the undying spirit of self-expression. It’s a genre that is felt as well as heard, a voice for the oppressed, and a force that continues to alter our culture. Hello and welcome to the world of hip-hop.