Hip-hop was born in the break 鈥� that moment when a song鈥檚 vocals dropped, instruments quieted down and the beat took the stage.

At the hands of the DJs, that break moment became more: a composition in itself. The MCs got in on it, speaking their own clever rhymes. So did the dancers, b-boys and b-girls. Graffiti artists took it to the streets of New York City.

Hip-hop spread around the country and the world. At each step: change, adaptation. Art, culture, fashion, community, social justice, politics, sports, business: Hip-hop has impacted them all.

In hip-hop, 鈥渨hen someone does it, then that鈥檚 how it鈥檚 done. When someone does something different, then that鈥檚 a new way,鈥� says Babatunde Akinboboye, a Nigerian-American opera singer and longtime hip-hop fan in Los Angeles, who

Hip-hop 鈥渃onnects to what is true. And what is true, lasts.鈥�

___

Those looking for a starting point have landed on Aug. 11, 1973, when Clive Campbell, known as DJ Kool Herc around the Bronx, deejayed a party. Campbell had started extending the musical breaks of records and speaking over the beat. It wasn鈥檛 long before the style could be heard all over the city.

And then in 1979, The Sugarhill Gang put out 鈥� 鈥� and introduced a rap record that would reach as high as 36 on Billboard鈥檚 Top 100 chart list.

Michael 鈥淲onder Mike鈥� Wright says he knew the song was 鈥済oing to be big. 鈥淚 knew it was going to blow up and play all over the world because it was a new genre of music,鈥� he tells The Associated Press.

And Guy 鈥淢aster Gee鈥� O鈥橞rien says, 鈥淚f you couldn鈥檛 sing or you couldn鈥檛 play an instrument, you could recite poetry and speak your mind. And so it became accessible to the everyman.鈥�

Female voices took their chances, like Roxanne Shante, who became one of the first female MCs to gain a wider audience. Other women have joined her, from Queen Latifah to Lil鈥� Kim to Nicki Minaj to Megan Thee Stallion and more.

___

Over the years, hip-hop has been used as a medium for just about everything. Mainstream America hasn鈥檛 always been ready for it. though.

Coming from America鈥檚 Black communities, that has also meant hip-hop has been a tool to speak out against injustice, like in 1982 when Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five told the world in 鈥� ,鈥� about the stresses of poverty in their city neighborhoods.

And Public Enemy鈥檚 鈥淔ight the Power鈥� became an anthem when it was created for filmmaker Spike Lee鈥檚 1989 classic 鈥淒o the Right Thing,鈥� which chronicled racial tension in a Brooklyn neighborhood.

Some in hip-hop pulled no punches but often those messages have been met with fear or disdain in the mainstream. When N.W.A. came 鈥淪traight Outta Compton鈥� in 1988 with loud, brash tales of police abuse and gang life, radio stations recoiled.

Hip-hop (mainly that done by Black artists) and law enforcement have had a contentious relationship over the years, each eyeing the other with suspicion. There鈥檚 been cause for some of it. In some forms of hip-hop the ties between rappers and criminal figures were real, and violence spiraled out, as in high-profile deaths like that of Tupac Shakur in 1996 and The Notorious B.I.G. in 1997. But in a country where Black people are often looked at with suspicion by authority, there have also been plenty of stereotypes about hip-hop and criminality.

As hip-hop spread, a host of voices have used it to speak out, like Bobby Sanchez, a Peruvian American transgender, two-spirit poet and rapper in Quechua, the language of the Wari people that her father came from.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 very special and cool when artists use it to reflect society because it makes it bigger than just them,鈥� Sanchez says. 鈥淭o me, it鈥檚 always political, really, no matter what you鈥檙e talking about, because hip-hop, in a way, is a form of resistance.鈥�

___

When hip-hop first started being absorbed globally, it often mimicked American styles, says P. Khalil Saucier, who has studied its journey across the Africa continent. These days, homegrown hip-hop can be found everywhere.

鈥淭he culture as a whole has kind of really rooted itself because it鈥檚 been able to now transform itself from simply an importation, if you will, to now really being local in its multiple manifestations, regardless of what country you鈥檙e looking at,鈥� says Saucier, a professor of critical Black studies at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.

That鈥檚 to everyone鈥檚 benefit, says Rishma Dhaliwal, founder of London鈥檚 .

鈥淗ip-hop is 鈥� allowing you in someone鈥檚 world. It鈥檚 allowing you into someone鈥檚 struggles,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a big microphone to say, `Well, the streets say this is what is going on here and this is what you might not know about us. This is how we feel, and this is who we are.鈥欌��

Hip-hop has also gone into other spaces and made them different.

For Usha Jey, hip-hop was the perfect thing to mix with the classical South Asian dance style of Bharatanatyam. The 26-year-old French choreographer last year showing the two styles interacting with each other.

Hip-hop culture 鈥減ushes you to be you,鈥� Jey says. 鈥淚 feel like in the pursuit of finding yourself, hip-hop helps me because that culture says, you鈥檝e got to be you.鈥�

Hip-hop is 鈥渁 magical art form,鈥� says Nile Rodgers, . He would know. It was his song 鈥淕ood Times,鈥� with the band Chic, that was recreated to form the basis for 鈥淩apper鈥檚 Delight鈥� all those years ago.

鈥淭he impact that it鈥檚 had on the world, it really can鈥檛 be quantified,鈥� Rodgers says. 鈥淵ou can find someone in a village that you鈥檝e never been to, a country that you鈥檝e never been to, and all of a sudden you hear its own local hip-hop. And you don鈥檛 even know who these people are, but they鈥檝e adopted it and have made it their own.鈥�

READ ALSO:

READ ALSO: