50 Years of Hip-Hop: How a generation fostered creativity from urban despair and racial barriers
50 Years of Hip-Hop: How a generation fostered creativity from urban despair and racial barriers
Hip-hop, a subculture and an art movement, was born when urban youth in crime and poverty-ridden neighbourhoods in South Bronx in New York City sought street corners to hang out and found ways to express their despairing selves. In the late 1970s, South Bronx was rocked by a manufacturing decline and an expressway that ended the local businesses. The emerging hip-hop movement gave the youths a recreative space to voice their despair and hardship, which grew to become a global phenomenon. Here's a look at the pioneers
Rap pioneers the Sugar Hill Gang (L-R Big Bank Hank, Wonder Mike and Master G) receive their gold record for the song 'Rapper's Delight' circa 1980. Rap first came to national prominence in the US with the release of the song on the independent African-American-owned label Sugar Hill. It became a chart-topping phenomenon within weeks of its release and was named a new genre.