Hip-hop at 50: 7 essential listens to celebrate rap's widespread influence
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Friday, August 11, 2023
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Armed with two record players and a mixer, he created an extended percussive break while others rhymed over the beats.
Key Points:
- Armed with two record players and a mixer, he created an extended percussive break while others rhymed over the beats.
- Well, that’s the origin story, although pinpointing the birth of a genre is never going to be an exact science.
- Below is a selection of the resulting articles, introduced by a key track featured in their writing.
1. ‘Rapper’s Delight’ – The Sugarhill Gang
- No history of hip-hop would be complete without this 1979 track by The Sugarhill Gang.
- But along with being an old-school classic, it also kick-started hip-hop’s global expansion.
- Read more:
After 'Rapper's Delight,' hip-hop went global – its impact has been massive; so too efforts to keep it real
2. ‘Planet Rock’ – Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force
- Despite building on samples and influences from the past, hip-hop as a genre has always pointed forward – as this 1981 track from Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force exemplifies.
- Read more:
Through space and rhyme: How hip-hop uses Afrofuturism to take listeners on journeys of empowerment
3. ‘Stan’ – Eminem, featuring Elton John
- But it was a pivotal moment in rap history: Eminem dueting with pop royalty Elton John underscored how hip-hop by the beginning of the 21st century had been accepted by the mainstream music industry.
- Moreover, it came at a time when Eminem was deemed deeply controversial because of his use of anti-gay slurs in his tracks.
- He noted that rappers are now having discussions over LGBTQ+ issues and apologizing for hateful speech in their earlier lyrics.
4. ‘You Came Up’ – Big Pun
- While hip-hop’s origins lie in Black American communities, Latino culture is also deeply woven into its story: from pioneers like Kid Frost and Big Pun to Bad Bunny, one of the most-streamed artists making music today.
- The genre was “my first love,” wrote Alejandro Nava, a religious studies professor at the University of Arizona.
5. ‘That’s what the Black woman is like’ – Arianna Puello
- Those social messages connected with Black and immigrant youths throughout Europe who themselves were searching for identity in countries where discrimination remains entrenched.
- Throughout her career, for example, Puello has used her music to confront the racism that she has faced as a Black female migrant in Spain.
6. ‘Move the Crowd’ – Eric B. and Rakim
- She argued that it became “hip-hop’s consciousness, emphasizing an awareness of injustice and the imperative to address it through both personal and social transformation.” One of the first rappers to use the phrase in lyrics was Rakim, who mentioned it in his 1987 song “Move the Crowd.” The song is a track on the “Paid in Full” album, which Rolling Stone once listed as No.
- 61 on its “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”