Drop The Mic

Hip-Hop Has Gone From Upstart to Worldwide Music and Cultural Phenomenon in a Few Decades

- Quinn Peterson

Hip-hop has marched down a long, winding road. A path that literally started in the streets and worked its way to radio, television and corporate advertising campaigns has grown from a poten-tially fleeting fad to a mainstay of popular culture. Now nearly 40 years old, it’s a global force that has earned a place in academia and played a notable role in politics. In the beginning, none of this was expected.

“I was too young to know [if it would last]. All I knew [was that] it was everywhere in the Black community with kids my age,” Grammy-winning hip-hop producer 9th Wonder recalls. “I was immediately moved. My mom and dad played gospel, and my older brother played funk. So in 1982, hearing [Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force’s seminal hip-hop track] ‘Planet Rock’ was a far cry from hearing the Commodores or James Cleveland or Parliament Funkadelic.”

“It slapped me in the face because [hip-hop] came not only with music but with fashion as well, which was di“erent than the funk clothes that Rick James and Prince wore. Here comes Run-DMC wearing adidas, track suits, gold chains–it was totally di“erent from what was going on in Black music at the time.”

Black popular music was once characterized by the glitzy production found in disco, the crossover appeal of Michael Jackson and the hard-driving funk and soul of Earth, Wind & Fire. Hip-hop documented Black life from a di“erent perspective and, at first, Black radio was not ready.

“I remember when rappers used to hop on R&B songs, and they would produce a version with the rap and a version without,” says Mark Anthony Neal, Ph.D., a professor of African & African-American Studies at Duke University and the author of multiple books,