50 Years Of Hip Hop
The way hip hop influences the culture you wouldn't think that it's only been around for just 50 years. What started as a back-to-school jam in the rec room of an apartment building, has become a worldwide phenomenon. By isolating the parts of the song that people wanted to dance to, DJ Kool Herc developed a style that became the blueprint for hip hop music.
The "break" in a song is what DJ Kool Herc focused on, combining different songs at their breaking points and ultimately creating what we know now as a mash-up. Herc used hard funk records, from artists such as James Brown, and created a loop of the breaks so party guests could dance longer. Not only was he mixing music, but he also hyped up the dancers calling them "break boys & break girls", thus coining the phrases "B-boys & B-girls"...Herc was truly a trailblazer.
It's undeniable that the music was influenced, but what we know as hip hop culture all started with an 18-year using his turn tables to create a space for his friends to come together and enjoy themselves. And since then, spaces created to celebrate our love for hip hop have continuously grown and evolved and left an undeniable imprint on the way the world moves.