Interview: D Flowers talks how he started rapping and new single “Gang sh*t” - Remixd Magazine (2024)

FAQs

Where and how did hip hop originate or become most popular give me a time period and what was happening during that time? ›

Hip hop, in other words, is a way of living—a culture. The elements of hip hop came together in the Bronx borough of New York City. It was the early 1970s and times were tougher than usual for the poorer parts of urban America. From a whole lot of nothing—and a whole lot of imagination—hip hop took form.

One of the most successful early hip hop conscious rap songs was Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message", an influential political and conscious hip hop track, decrying the poverty, violence, and dead-end lives of the urban poor of the time.

Hip-hop or hip hop music, also known as rap, and formerly as disco rap, is a genre of popular music that originated in the early 1970s by African Americans and Caribbean immigrants in the Bronx, a borough of New York City.

DJ Kool Herc

This historical party is recognized for launching the hip hop movement. DJ Kool Herc also introduced the “breakbeat” DJ technique – a mixing practice he adapted from Jamaican dub music. However, Kool Herc would play funk, soul, and other genres with percussive sections.

Kurtis Walker (born August 9, 1959), professionally known by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record/film producer, b-boy, DJ, public speaker and minister. He is the first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a major record label.

But in those early years, white rappers emerged, too. It's difficult to know who the first one actually was; technically it could be Debbie Harry of Blondie, who rapped on 1980's “Rapture,” or even Rodney Dangerfield, who dropped the deeply weird novelty single “Rappin' Rodney” in 1983.

American rapper Eminem has gone by multiple honorifics, such as "King of Hip-Hop" and "King of Rap".

One of the first rappers at the beginning of the hip hop period, at the end of the 1970s, was also hip hop's first DJ, DJ Kool Herc. Herc, a Jamaican immigrant, started delivering simple raps at his parties, which some claim were inspired by the Jamaican tradition of toasting.

Sharon Green (born 1962), also known as MC Sha-Rock, is considered the "first female rapper" or emcee. Born in Wilmington, North Carolina, she grew up in the South Bronx, New York City during the earliest years of hip hop culture and rap music.

How did hip-hop get its name? ›

The rapper used the words hip/hop/hip/hop, imitating the sound of soldiers marching, in reference to a friend who had joined the army. According to some accounts, Kevin (”Lovebug Starski”) Smith was with Wiggins and helped create the phrase.

Deejaying, Emceeing, Breaking and Dancing, and Graffiti weren't just hobbies – they were sanctuaries. DJ Kool Herc (AKA the “Father of Hip Hop”) used to start block parties in the West Bronx (AKA the “birthplace of Hip Hop"). He played music on his turntables and the community would come out to mingle and dance.

As with most genres of music you can argue for hours about what "rap" actually is, but the first incontrovertable "rap" record would be "Rappers Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang which came out in about 1979.

Although long believed to be popular primarily with urban African American males, hip-hop became the best-selling genre of popular music in the United States in the late 1990s (at least partly by feeding the appetite of some white suburbanites for vicarious thrills).

The story goes that on August 11, 1973 DJ Kool Herc, a building resident, was entertaining at his sister's back-to-school party, and tried something new on the turntable: he extended an instrumental beat (breaking or scratching) to let people dance longer (break dancing) and began MC'ing (rapping) during the extended ...

Rapping first gained popularity in the U.S. in the 1970s as a kind of street art, especially among African American teenagers. But it wasn't until 1979, when the Sugarhill Gang released their breakaway hit, "Rapper's Delight", that record producers took notice of this emerging musical genre.

That first rap record was, of course, the 1979 single Rapper's Delight, from the Sugarhill Gang. Although other records had incorporated rapping, Rapper's Delight was the first single to bring hip-hop to a mainstream audience. Playing on hits from Chic and Love De-Luxe, the track took disco and turned it inside-out.