Hip-hop has risen from humble beginnings. Starting as barbecue and block party entertainment in some of New York's poorest cities, Hip hop has become a global phenomenon that dominates the radio and has created an industry that generates hundreds of millions of dollars a year and has changed music culture in America, and the world, forever.

To most people, Hip Hop is synonymous with rapping, the art of rhythmically delivering vocals that are usually paired with an instrumental, but Hip hop is considered the overall embodiment of the entire subculture, which includes many key stylistic elements like rapping, table turning, break dancing, graffiti art, and beatboxing.

Hip hop took to the global stage for the first time in 1979 when The Sugar Hill Gang released Rapper's Paradise; it became a top 40 hit and remained on the Billboard for 12 weeks.

After the success of Rapper's Delight, other hip-hop records were released like Kurtis Blow's The Breaks and Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock. Most of these songs were about having fun, but in 1982 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released The Message, an early example of socially-conscious hip hop. It had a slow funk groove with melodic synthesizer riffs and the raps were about social issues like poverty, crime and the stress of living in a dangerous city.

In the 1980's Hip Hop began to evolve. instrumentals were being created in studio settings, and the introduction of drum machines, synthesizers, and samples from old funk and disco records began to be a norm in the genre. Hooks, a catchy line of lyrics that are usually repeated within a song, also became popular.

the collaboration of different genres with Hip Hop began to flourish in the 1980's adding heavy guitar rifts giving Hip hop a rocker's flair which was very popular at the time. The Beastie Boys' Licensed To Ill became hip hop's first number-one album.

The 1990's brought Gangster rap to the world with artists like 2Pac, Nas, Jay-z, Wu-Tang Clan, NWA, Ice-T, Notorious B.I.G. and many others.

In the 21 century, Hip hop has become a global force with artists still pushing the boundaries of Hip Hop.