Hip-Hop today is a global culture that has changed music, dance, fashion, language —and even politics. But where did this worldwide cultural movement begin? We trace hip-hop back to its humble beginnings, when the kids of the Bronx crammed into house parties, rec rooms, and public parks to hear music like they’d never heard it before.
CreatorDarby Wheeler
The Foundation
Sep 5, 2016
Bronx-based DJs set Hip-Hop's sonic foundations. MCs, inspired by African American oral traditions, create the modern template for rap music, culminating with the emergence of Hip-Hop's first crew, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
From The Underground to The Mainstream
Sep 12, 2016
Hip-Hop crews in the Bronx and Harlem begin to form around the DJs, but these pioneering groups never record any music. It would take R&B veterans to see the genre’s commercial potential and create Hip-Hop's first hit, "Rapper's Delight."
The New Guard
Sep 19, 2016
Run-DMC ushers in a new era of Hip-Hop. Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin build Hip-Hop's first empire, Def Jam. An unknown producer finds a new way to make beats and launches Hip-Hop's Golden Age, culminating in the epic fury of Public Enemy.
The Birth of Gangsta Rap
Sep 26, 2016
Ice-T uses Hip-Hop to reflect the violence of Los Angeles and inspires a new form of Hip-Hop: Gangsta Rap. N.W.A’s first album, Straight Outta Compton, shocks America. After the LA Rebellion, Dr. Dre makes The Chronic, and creates Hip-Hop’s first hardcore pop record
GenerationofSwine
@GenerationofSwine
OK, in the title it has the word EVOLUTION. Unfortunately it's broken into regions. East and west and Chicago and Atlanta and... That doesn't work for someone like me that really doesn't follow hip-hop, but loves most music and wants to learn about it's evolution. Here and there you get little beeds on knoweldge, like how it originated from Funk, how a lot of the stars I have heard about came from this or that club, how it has roots with the Black Panthers... ...but none of that is presented in a way that you can look at the series and understand how it moved to become what it is. I mean, I am from the 90s, I understand the East Coast/West Coast thing. I get that, but I also get that hip-hop had to originate and evolve to even get to that, and that evolution is why I watched the series. It's cool that I learned things about an art form I really don't pay attention to, I just wish they would have covered how hip-hop actually evolved as a whole before they did the regional thing.
