The Golden Age Of Hip-Hop

In 2017, Forbes announced that Hip-Hop had become the most popular music genre in the United States for the first time in its history. A history that, although diverse, is shorter than most people would think. The origins of Hip-Hop can be traced back to a singular date and place; August 11th, 1973, at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, New York, where DJ Kool Herc was hosting a party. He began MCing, or rapping, over a break, now known as a beat, and laid the foundations for the music genre known as Hip-Hop. During the Golden Age of Hip-Hop, which began at DJ Kool Herc’s 1973 party, the genre would be rapidly refined. Herc was the primary inspiration for artists such as Afrika Bambaataa and ‘Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’, who revolutionized

released their first controversial album, Straight Outta Compton. It’s edgy, violent, anti-establishment lyrics would define the genre in many’s eyes for years to come. The second song on the record, “Fuck Tha Police”, was controversial enough to make the FBI write a disapproving letter to the groups record label. Although Gangsta Rap would come to be the dominant force in Hip-Hop during these years, it was not the only type of sound being made. Many groups from the 80s continued making socially conscious rap during this era, as did newcomers like Mos Def and Common. Others, like Nas, who released what some call the greatest album of all time, Illmatic, blended the two styles together. The rise of the West Coast led to perhaps the most well-known aspect of 90’s Hip-Hop; the infamous feud between East Coast and West Coast Rappers. This height of this beef was between NYC’s Notorious B.I.G. and LA’s Tupac. The two most popular artists of this era, their careers, as well as the EC-WC feud, were cut short when they died in separate 1997 shootings, both of which remain unresolved today. Their deaths left a power vacuum in Hip-Hop, that would be filled by several artists in the following

2008 saw the release of Kanye West’s fourth album, 808s & Heartbreak, which was a radical departure in style from his previous albums. The lyrics were more personal than ever, focusing on the feelings of loss and depression he had felt due to recent events in his life. Combined with the minimalist, electronic-inspired production, and heavy use of auto-tune, this was a Kanye West almost unrecognizable compared to the Kanye of only a year ago. 808s & Heartbreak would be the blueprint for many rappers in the years to come, including Drake, the best selling artist of the 2010s. Drake, along with other new rappers such as Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean, would continue the general trend of introspective, personal lyrics, even if the three of them differed in style. The past few years, however, would also offer the rise of Trap, a subgenre that’s almost the exact opposite; lyrics focused solely on being catchy, with almost all of the emphasis going on the beats. The genre, coming mainly out of the south, particularly Atlanta, would explode in popularity, despite the roots of it existing for over a decade. Maybe the most important divide between this era and the last, however, has nothing to do with the music itself; streaming. The rise of web-based streaming services, such as Youtube, Spotify, and Pandora, has nearly made the physical