hip-hop

Introduction & Top Questions
Origins and the old school
The new school
American hip-hop in the 21st century
Hip-hop goes online
Hip-hop as a global phenomenon

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images

The Empire State Building rises in the background above a colorful graffiti-covered wall under a dramatic, cloudy sky.

A young man performs a breakdancing move balanced on one hand on a mat in Washington Square Park, New York, as a group of spectators watches in the early 1980s.

DJ Kool Herc sits on a leather bench in a patterned blue outfit and sunglasses, holding a blue street sign reading Hip Hop Blvd, with red lighting in the background.

Gil Scott-Heron, smiling in a black cap and T-shirt, clasps hands with rapper Common, who wears a green shirt, backstage at Central Park SummerStage in New York.

The Last Poets-Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, Nilaja Obabi, and Umar Bin Hassan-pose closely together for a black-and-white portrait in New York City around 1970.

The Sugarhill Gang performs on stage at the Apollo Theater, with three members holding microphones and a DJ in the background, under bright stage lights and in front of a graffiti set.

Quizzes

USA 2006 - 78th Annual Academy Awards. Closeup of giant Oscar statue at the entrance of the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, film movie hollywood

Pop Culture Quiz

American quartet Boyz II Men (left to right) Shawn Stockman, Wanya Morris, Nathan Morris and Michael McClary, 1992. (music, rhythm-and-blues). Photographed at the American Music Awards where they won Favorite Soul/R&B New Artist, Los Angeles, California, January 27, 1992.

90s Music Quiz

Related Questions

How did A Tribe Called Quest combine jazz-influenced samples with socially conscious rap?
How did Afrika Bambaataa’s song “Planet Rock” combine hip-hop with electro-funk music?
How did Black Power poetry influence socially conscious rap?
How did British grime create a distinct hip-hop sound in the United Kingdom?
How did Chicago drill music develop from trap music?
How did DJ Kool Herc use two turntables to extend drum breaks?
How did Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg contribute to the rise of G-funk?
How did Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five influence socially conscious rap?
How did Grandmaster Flash develop the needle-dropping technique?
How did Keith “Keef Cowboy” Wiggins help popularize the phrase hip-hop?
How did Kraftwerk influence Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock”?
How did N.W.A’s album “Straight Outta Compton” change West Coast rap?
How did New York City respond to graffiti on subway cars in the 1970s?
How did “Rapper’s Delight” help bring rap music to a national audience?
How did Run-DMC and Aerosmith create the rap-metal hit “Walk This Way”?
How did Run-DMC combine rap music with hard rock?
How did breakbeats help create break dancing?
How did economic decline in the South Bronx shape the early hip-hop movement?
How did gangsta rap differ from earlier socially conscious hip-hop?
How did hip-hop influence fashion, television, advertising, and other industries?
How did the Beastie Boys broaden the audience for hip-hop?
How did the dozens influence early rap battles and wordplay?
How does scratching create a rhythmic sound on a turntable?
How is hip-hop culture different from rap music?
What made Afrika Bambaataa’s block parties important to hip-hop’s growth?
What musical characteristics are common in trap music?
What social issues did Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five address in “The Message”?
Where did the name hip-hop come from?
Where did trap music begin, and which artists were called its holy trinity?
Which four elements are considered the pillars of hip-hop culture?
Which funk songs did DJ Kool Herc use for breakbeats at early hip-hop parties?
Why are DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash called the holy trinity of early hip-hop?
Why are lyricism, rhyme complexity, and freestyle ability important in rap?
Why did DJ Kool Herc call his two-turntable method the merry-go-round?
Why did Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five break up in the mid-1980s?
Why do some hip-hop artists and scholars include knowledge of self as a fifth element of hip-hop?
Why is Roxanne Shanté’s “Roxanne’s Revenge” considered the first rap diss track?
Why was “The Message” important in the history of protest rap?
Why were Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five important to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
Why were dancers called B-boys and B-girls at early hip-hop parties?
What are the four main elements of hip-hop?
How did hip-hop get its name?
Who are the founders of hip-hop?
What was the first major hip-hop song?
What was the outcome of the Ahmedabad Mill Strike?
What is Wicca?
What is the origin of Wicca?
What rituals do Wiccans perform?
Why are Wiccans called witches?
What do Wiccans believe?

Entertainment & Pop Culture Popular Music Genres Rap & Hip-Hop Music

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External Websites

Al Jazeera - Black power and ï¿½edutainmentï¿½: The political roots of hip-hop music
LOUIS Pressbooks - So You Think You Know Dance? - Hip-Hop
Icon Collective - Hip Hop History: From the Streets to the Mainstream
The Kennedy Center - Hip Hop: A Culture of Vision and Voice
LiveAbout - The History of Hip-Hop: 1925 to Now
Humanities LibreTexts - Hip-Hop
CNN - Digging up rapÂ’s roots: How African rhythms birthed American hip-hop
University of Arkansas Libraries - Hip Hop
Carnegiee Hall - Timeline of African American Music - History of Rap & Hip-Hop
BlackPast - Rap/Hip Hop

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

hip-hop - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
hip-hop - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Public Enemy American rap group Public Enemy, 1988.

hip-hop

music and cultural movement

Written by

Alan Light

Editor-in-Chief Tracks (2002-05), Spin (1999-2002), and Vibe (1994-97), and author of The Skills to Pay the Bills: The Story of the Beastie Boys and The Holy or...

Alan LightAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 1, 2026 •History

Hip-hop is a global cultural movement that attained widespread popularity in the 1980s and ’90s after its birth in New York City in the 1970s. It is also the backing music for rap, the musical style incorporating rhythmic and rhyming speech that became the movement’s most lasting and influential art form. Although widely considered a synonym for rap music, the term hip-hop refers to a complex culture comprising four elements: deejaying, or “turntabling”; rapping, also...

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