The most amazing and at the same time the most obvious fact 50 years since the birth of hip-hop is its durability. The genre was not supposed to exist for so long, but the only way out was survival. Hip-hop originated on the Bronx dance floor in August 1973 (probably the 11th) as a union of rhyme, rhythm and beating hearts. The genesis of everything that follows begins there. It was the beginning of a decade of great turmoil, just a few years after black Americans gained the right to vote. With the first scratch on the record, hip-hop announced its goal: to always try to be something more.
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Hip-hop has never lowered its head. His appearance was a kaleidoscope of style and confidence. The genre is often a story of local devotion, and indeed, my first exposure to rap radio came from Southern California: the lazy days when I was mesmerized by everything I heard. Plumbing funky Dr Dre. Smooth lyricism Snoop Dogg. Before it was fashionable, hip-hop defined who you were. Era Where did you come from.
Hip-hop represented you and you represented it back. In the United States, we rebelled. We were screaming “Fuck the police” and asked “Can I kick it?“. Hip hop was real. Heroic trajectories and legendary encounters. Passions and traps. Their stories were our stories. hip hop was a place where you can find yourself, gain confidence. It was a pose. Attitude.
Passing let’s run-dmc and Queen Latifah in Wu-Tang, in OutKasts it’s in The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill 1998 hip hop he revived every aspect of pop culture. It was cool and trendy. He was present in every corner of the world. It was television. It was international. It was everywhere. Hip hop was how he defined himself chill. And everyone wanted to be chill.
The evolution of the genre is as wide and amazing as its sound. There was Missy and his izzy izzy aaa interdimensional. Production Farrell. But also Jay ZDMX and Eva. Continuous evolution of hip hop it’s what keeps the genre alive, what keeps it one step ahead, what keeps it young and stimulates its curiosity.
With the domestication of technology after 2000 and the spread of the Internet, borders have completely disappeared. Hip hop was no longer the exclusive product of the United States shipped overseas. He became global voice. They did it for everyone. It spread to Napster when cassettes and CDs died out. They could easily be shared with mp3. Hip-hop is transmitted through blogs, podcasts and zip folders. He developed too fast for anyone to keep up with him. Hip-hop gives and takes with equal ease.
There wasn’t a person he wouldn’t accept as his own.. Over time, thanks to Young MA and Lil Nas X, hip-hop has learned to dress up different sexualities and religions. His strength is undeniable. Hip-hop breathed jazz, rock, and Latin American influences along the way, cascading like the code of the Matrix across the internet, flaring up and flowing into a world that didn’t always love it. Now, as then, there is no lid or cage for the hip-hop sound to lock it in.
Today, the genre boasts a palpable autonomy as well as unsurpassed reputation and circulation. Hip-hop stretches from Palo Alto to Prague, from classrooms to the American Congress. It is the eternal source of creative life. Hip-hop is an encyclopedia of language and imagination. This the basis of pop culture, always on the edge. This is the prologue of what comes next and who comes next. Hip-hop makes and breaks stars. He is 50, but youth is on his side, because today everything is the same as always: pure fiction. As Lauryn Hill said: ready or Nothip hop is a fact.
For a genre defined in equal measure by failure and success, hip hop is still here. How is this possible, you ask. Because its reach is galactic. His influence is eternal. Even now, at 50, Is there anything hip-hop can’t do or can’t be?
Hip-hop has a stubborn lust for life and a noisy life. The greatest asset of the genre is its vital impulse. His uncompromising spirit is why we listen to him, why we love him. Hip hop is a sound, people and culture that don’t know how to stop. – Why would he do that? Fifty years later, hip-hop is a story of amazing and unique evolutions. This is a timeline that has no clear ending, only new, unexplored origins.
This article originally appeared on Wired US.