The hip-hop genre officially turns 50 years old on August 11. Admittedly, it feels weird to pin an exact date on the birth of the United States' biggest genre. Elements of hip-hop were beginning to take form well before 1973. The musical style was born out of New York kids' graffiti, DJ sets, breakdancing, and MCing. At its core, the beginnings of the genre were rooted in exhilarating rebellion. Outcasted African American teenagers in the impoverished blocks of New York were searching for a creative outlet to better reflect the chaos of their upbringing. They weren't finding that outlet in the prevalent genres of the time.
At its core, hip-hop's birth out of an emotional place of struggle and survival is what stands the genre out in the worldwide scope of music. In essence, the phrase encompasses more than a sound. Overall, it's a culture that rose from oppression. By the early 1970s, Bronx teenagers were beatboxing and making beats with whatever items they could find. Snapping to the beat of their imaginative world, rapid-fire verses began to take form. However, August 11 is specifically cataloged due to a particular block party that took place in 1973.
DJ Kool Herc's August 11 Block Party Pioneered Hip-Hop
On August 11, 1973, DJ Kool Herc, born Clive Campbell, threw the famous "back to school jam" block party on 1520 Sedgwick Ave. The Jamaican-American DJ was instrumental in the creation of hip-hop. However, it was actually Herc's sister, Cindy Campbell, who had decided to throw the block party. Initially, the goal was to raise funds to purchase new clothes for the upcoming school year. Even ahead of frat party antics, the entry charge was 50 cents for boys and a quarter for girls. Over 300 people would show up at Sedgwick Avenue. DJ Kool Herc would become a local celebrity overnight. Suddenly, the 18-year-old was viewed in a starkly different light throughout the Bronx borough.
Kool Herc's melting pot of Jamaican influences meshed with the bustling world of New York. As a result, Herc's background naturally generated the early soundscapes of hip-hop. He would pioneer a style popularly known as "breakbeats." The style revolves around looping a section of funk records into a sound that people would lose their minds to. Even more impressively, Herc would do all of this in a live setting with the Merry-Go-Round technique. He would create the loop in front of a crowd with two turntables and a mixer, allowing him to manipulate the breakbeat in real-time.
"I was noticing people used to wait for particular parts of the record to dance, maybe to do their specialty move," DJ Kool Herc told History. He observed that this almost always occurred at the drum break. As a result, he began to brainstorm ways in which to extend this sound over the course of a song.
The Bronx Set The Tone For Hip-Hop
The significance of the block party went beyond dance-inducing loops of James Brown or Isley Brothers tracks. As Jeff Chang put it to Paste Magazine, "The party was important not so much because of its size or Herc's playlist or any special dance that got introduced, [but] the fact that it sparked a scene that transformed the youth culture in that devastated borough. Cindy and Herc's party came right at the moment when gangs had begun to wane and young people were looking for ways to gather and express themselves." Herc set the tone for hip-hop in the Bronx, as pioneering MCs began brainstorming ways to flow over his production.
However, some argue August 11, 1973, isn't the accurate birthdate of hip-hop. During an interview with Nardwuar, Universal Zulu Nation leader Afrika Bambaataa argued that the birthday of hip-hop was Nov. 12, 1974. "When we decided to call this whole culture hip-hop. Hip-hop even goes further than that, but we decided to name it hip-hop as a culture, meaning with the b-boys, the b-girls, the MCs, the aerosol writers, graffiti writers and the DJs and that fifth element that holds it all together. That's the date that I decided we should name this as a whole culture and start moving from there," Bambaataa stated. Admittedly, there will always be debate about the true birthdate of hip-hop. The genre is a constantly evolving creative and revolutionary act rather than a concept with a concrete start or end date.
Hip-Hop Has Evolved Drastically Over 50 Years
Five years after DJ Kool Herc's electric block party, hip-hop was beginning to transform into a mainstream genre throughout New York. After the New York Blackout of 1977, where many looters stole DJ equipment from electronics stores, hip-hop began to grow at an astounding rate. By the end of the decade, groups such as Sugar Hill Gang and Funky 4 + 1 were beginning to garner a presence on music's top charts. Then, in the 1990s, hip-hop became one of the best-selling genres.
Nas's company Mass Appeal has the reigns on events and celebrations for the Hip-Hip 50th initiative in order to commemorate the authentic and global impact the genre has made. They've announced an official celebratory event on August 11th at Yankee Stadium.
August 11, 1973 became an official holiday for hip-hop back in 2021. The senate chambers made history by unanimously voting to officially designate the day as Hip-Hop's Celebration Day. “By unanimous consent, the Senate passed S.Res.331,” the United States Senate Periodical Press Gallery confirmed via Twitter. The Senate elaborated further on the topic, saying that it is “a resolution designating August 11, 2021, as ‘Hip Hop Celebration Day,’ designating August 2021 as ‘’Hip Hop Recognition Month’, and designating November 2021 as ‘Hip Hop History Month. More so a cultural revolution than merely a genre, hip-hop has had its pulse on cultural trends surrounding fashion, technology, art, entertainment, politics, and media from the jump. Now reaching the 50-year mark, hip-hop's influence is only just getting started.