U.S. & CANADA HIP-HOP

Many histories of hip hop have been written since the first B-Boy upped his first uprock, and while almost each has its own claim as to who was the first, who was the best and who made the old sound new, most agree on a few pivotal figures without which hip hop would never have formed. For example, after paying due homage to West African Griots, who use music to accompany their epic tales, and drawing direct ancestral lines from them to late '60s and early '70s revolutionary African-American poets like The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, every history of the music worth its salt describes Jamaican-born, Bronx-based DJ Kool Heruc as "the godfather of hip hop." In the late '70s, rappers -- deejays speaking rhymes over rhythmic breaks -- began to attract attention from musicians outside the Bronx, and even outside their own African-American and Latino communities.

As rap music moved from the Bronx streets to the Manhattan mainstream, record producers became eager to bring this music to a wider audience (or, as some may say, cash in on it). At just this time a fledgling New Jersey-based label called Sugar Hill Records pulled together a group of MC's (MC="master of ceremonies") into an entity that became known as The Sugarhill Gang. In 1979 the Gang's "Rapper's Delight" became the first rap song to become a radio hit.

LEARN ABOUT THE HIP HOP PILLARS: INTERACTIVE LESSONS FOR KIDS