This year, hip-hop turns 50, an anniversary that's offered its elders, its fans and the city that birthed it a milepost to reflect on its cultural weight
US rapper Chubb Rock (L) and DJ and producer Grandmaster Flash (R) at the 50 years of Hip-Hop Grandmaster Flash and friends "Birth of a Culture: The Four Elements Block Party" at Capital One City Parks Foundation Summer Stage on August 4, 2023 in New York.
Image: Angela Weiss / AFP
A genre, a culture and a lifestyle all at once: hip hop has traveled from the block party to the billionaire's club, soundtracked protest and celebration, and asserted seismic influence over the course of pop.
The reigning music style evolved in rapid, anarchic ways, rocking the industry establishment that long resisted its power, and fully embodying the culture of youth even as the genre grew up.
This year hip hop turns 50, an anniversary that's offered its elders, its fans and the city that birthed it a milepost to reflect on its cultural weight.
The exact birthday is difficult to isolate, but the general consensus of musicologists and insiders is that on August 11, 1973 hip hop's rumblings came to a head in New York.
It's the stuff of myth: DJ Kool Herc's younger sister Cindy threw a back-to-school party in the rec room of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, a high-rise apartment building in the Bronx near a major expressway.