Hip-hop turns 50: A look at the past, present and future of the global phenomenon
57:51 Share

50 years after its birth, hip-hop has become an integral part of mainstream American culture. With its roots in the voices of marginalized communities, hip-hop is reflected in everything from a rapping Pillsbury Dough Boy) to dialogue in movies) to speeches on the floor of Congress).

"Hip-hop is a culture. It's a far-reaching culture. It's the most dominant youth culture on the planet," said Dart Adams, Boston-based writer and hip-hop expert. "It incorporates DJing, b-boying — or 'breaking,' as it's commonly called — emceeing is one aspect, and of course, you know, there's graffiti art. And all these aspects of the culture come together to form hip-hop. But people's idea of hip-hop is usually relegated just to rap music."

What started as Kool Herc’s innovative DJ party groove in 1973) was amplified by new masters of ceremonies, or MCs, spinning and scratching at house and street parties. The new music genre quickly established its signature turntablism, breakbeat deejaying, and scat-style rhyming lyrics. Hip-hop artists would go on to express their tears and triumphs in their songs — they often spoke to political and social oppression.

"Hip hop was the way we spread the word. It was the way we let people know that we were in solidarity across time and space," Dawn-Elissa Fischer, co-founder of the Hip Hop Archive and Research Institute at Harvard University, told Under the Radar. "I was actually in a rural area of the United States, the Ozarks in southern Missouri, at the time where there were a lot of various types of lynchings and police killings and other horrible, racist things happening that weren't being covered in the news. And so, to hear 'Public Enemy No. 1)' ... and 'Fight The Power)' and to see the video, the visual of the parade of people gathered; I felt protected and inspired."

In the ’90s, America became the hip-hop nation. And in the ensuing years, hip-hop became the biggest and most influential global music genre in the world.

"The hip hop of the '90s really captured the spectrum of Blackness. You go from 'Fight the Power' to 'Juicy),' which is the celebration of the comeuppance, not just of Biggie himself, but of his community who he is able to put on, but also Black people and hip-hop in particular," said Danielle Scott, professor at Berklee College of Music. "And then he says, 'You never thought that hip hop would take it this far.' Now hip-hop is in Harvard. Hip-hop is in Brown [University]. Hip-hop is no longer relegated to the pre-filming of the Grammys, it's on the Grammys' stages. It's in country music. It's all around the world. ... I think what Biggie said in that moment, just in that one little line, was prophetic, you know, in terms of how far hip-hop was going to take it."

GUESTS

Dart Adams, Boston-based writer and hip-hop expert

Danielle Scott, hip-hop MC and professor at Berklee College of Music

Dawn-Elissa Fischer, associate director and co-founder of the Hip Hop Archive and Research Institute at Harvard University