Kool Herc Created Rap Music in the 1970s Bronx, Then Hip Hop Exploded Worldwide

The "Godfather of Hip Hop," DJ Kool Herc, is credited with pioneering rap music in the early 1970s in New York City. By loopingly drum breaks on vinyl, rapping over the beats, and fusing Jamaican sound system culture with funk records, Herc invented the foundational DJing and MCing techniques that evolved into hip hop. This groundbreaking new musical style spread from underground parties in the Bronx across New York City and ultimately the globe. From the old school origins to today‘s hitmakers, rap has diversified into countless subgenres over the past 50 years.

The Revolutionary DJ Kool Herc Mixes Breakbeats and Toasting to Invent Rap

Before he became known as "the Father of Hip Hop," Clive Campbell was born in 1955 in Kingston, Jamaica. His family moved to the Bronx when he was 12, where his Jamaican roots and love of music led him to DJing. Campbell began hosting parties under the name DJ Kool Herc in the early 1970s.

At these parties, Herc used two turntables to seamlessly loop and extend the instrumental "break" sections on funk records where people danced. This innovative breakbeat DJing laid the foundation for hip hop production. Herc would toast or shout over these breakbeats to hype up the crowd, blending Jamaican-style toasting with American funk music. This combination of looping dance breaks and rapping over the beats created the early blueprints for rap music.

As hip hop historian Jeff Chang said, "Herc crafted the blueprint that everybody built on and followed," through these pioneering DJ techniques and energetic rapping style. From extended dance breaks to rhyming atop instrumentals, Kool Herc innovated the core DJ and MC components that evolved into the rap music we know today.

Hip Hop Spreads Across New York City in the Late 1970s

Throughout the rest of the 1970s, hip hop expanded from its Bronx origins across New York City:

• Pioneering DJs like Grandmaster Flash invented quick-mixing techniques like cutting and scratching. His crew Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five recorded classic raps like "The Message."

• Afrika Bambaataa‘s futuristic productions and Universal Zulu Nation collective promoted hip hop culture beyond music.

• Rapper Kurtis Blow became one of the first MCs signed to a major label with early singles like "The Breaks."

• Groups like the Cold Crush Brothers revolutionized live rap concerts with amped-up performances.

• The global smash "Rapper‘s Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang brought rap nationwide recognition.

By 1979, hip hop‘s core pillars of DJing, rapping, graffiti, and breaking were taking shape across all five boroughs.

The Old School: Rap Comes of Age in the 1980s

The 1980s marked rap‘s transition from underground NYC sensation to full-fledged recorded genre:

• Run-D.M.C. took rap mainstream, selling millions of records and even performing with Aerosmith. Their 1984 single "It‘s Tricky" became the first rap song broadcast on MTV.

• LL Cool J‘s radio-friendly yet raw rapping on songs like "I Can‘t Live Without My Radio" expanded rap‘s pop appeal. His 1985 debut Radio was the first rap LP to reach platinum sales.

• The Beastie Boys fused rock and rap to critical acclaim on the 1986 #1 chart-topping album License to Ill, the first rap record to hit #1.

• Public Enemy‘s politically charged 1988 masterpiece It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back impacted rap‘s socially conscious direction.

According to hip hop journalist Jeff Rosenthal, these pioneering MCs "set the framework of what an emcee could sound like, what a group could look like, what subject matter was acceptable." The old school laid the groundwork for rap‘s explosive growth in the 90s and beyond.

West Coast Gangsta Rap and East Coast Rivalries Emerge in the 1990s

As hip hop entered its second decade, new schools and styles diversified the rap landscape:

• N.W.A, Ice-T, and 2Pac led the gritty West Coast gangsta rap movement repping LA and Oakland. This contrasted sharply with East Coast groups like Public Enemy and Wu-Tang Clan.

• Tupac and Biggie Smalls tragically died amid the heated East vs. West rivalry, as coastal beefs boiled over into violence.

• Dr. Dre‘s 1992 album The Chronic brought G-funk style and Snoop Dogg into the mainstream as West Coast rap peaked commercially.

• Bad Boy Records founder Sean "Puffy" Combs propelled hip hop into pop dominance with his slick productions for the Notorious B.I.G. and other chart-topping artists.

Rap music sales peaked in the late 90s, led by West Coast and Southern rappers. Source

Rap Explodes into a Pop Culture Force in the 1990s

The 1990s cemented rap as a pop cultural and commercial titan:

• Vanilla Ice‘s "Ice Ice Baby" became the first rap #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1990.

• MC Hammer sold over 10 million copies of 1990‘s Please Hammer Don‘t Hurt ‘Em, with pop-rap smashes like "U Can‘t Touch This" dominating radio.

• Will Smith transitioned from TV star to rapper as hits like "Summertime" and "Miami" brought rap to middle American audiences.

• Pop divas like Mariah Carey featured rappers like Ol‘ Dirty Bastard on remixes to gain "street cred" as hip hop flavored the charts.

• Eminem‘s perennial best-sellers like The Marshall Mathers LP made him one of rap‘s elite superstars by the early 2000s.

Rap overtook rock as the best selling music genre in the late 1990s. Source

MC Serch, former member of the rap group 3rd Bass, reflected on rap‘s explosion, "It just became this phenomenon that you couldn‘t avoid. Kids in Nebraska were listening to N.W.A." The genre had undoubtedly conquered mainstream music.

Diverse Voices Emerge from Rap‘s Underground Spirit

Beyond commercial success, rap‘s independent underground diversified in the 90s:

• The Wu-Tang Clan built an East Coast rap empire as solo stars like Method Man and Ol‘ Dirty Bastard emerged from the collective.

• Sean "Puffy" Combs founded Bad Boy Records, nurturing top talent like Notorious B.I.G. and launching the careers of producers like The Hitmen.

• Jay-Z‘s Reasonable Doubt kicked off his journey to become rap‘s first billionaire businessman and entrepreneur.

• Female rappers like Queen Latifah, Lauryn Hill, Lil Kim, and Missy Elliott broke down gender barriers with their talent and confidence.

• Experimental subgenres like jazz rap and rap rock fused hip hop with other styles.

So while flashy mainstream hits grabbed headlines, 90s rap was propelled by its relentless underground innovation and diversity.

The Evolution of Rap in the 2000s and Today

In the 21st century, rap has blossomed into the diverse global genre we know today:

• Crunk, trap, and snap brought thunderous Southern rap styles out of Atlanta, Houston, and Florida to take over the charts, ending East/West coastal dominance.

• Kanye West has repeatedly reinvented his sound, pushing rap into experimental and artsy territory with his visionary productions and vulnerable lyrics.

• Drake perfected rap‘s pop crossover with hits like "One Dance" and "Hotline Bling," blending singing and rapping.

• Nicki Minaj elevated female rap back to popularity, embracing bubblegum pop and ferocious flows.

• Hip hop expanded across the globe, as Korean rap phenomenon Psy showed with his 2012 viral smash "Gangnam Style."

• New regional styles like Chicago‘s drill scene and Detroit‘s ghettotech kept bubbling up through rap‘s underground.

Today, young stars like Lil Nas X, Megan Thee Stallion, and Roddy Ricch build off of hip hop‘s rich history. Modern streaming and social media allow hip hop to mutate faster than ever before. As Professor Murray Forman summarized, "Rap music has continued to be informed by its origins yet continuously evolves into new forms."

Rap accounted for the most music sales of any genre in 2021, showing its continued dominance. Source

Kool Herc and Hip Hop Pioneers‘ Lasting Influence

Today rap is clearly the most popular musical genre on the planet. But it came from humble beginnings at parties hosted by Kool Herc and other innovators in 1970s New York City. Herc‘s revolutionary DJing techniques served as the sonic blueprint for hip hop production. By rapping over these beat breaks, he helped shape rhyming and emceeing fundamentals.

Without Kool Herc‘s innovations, the contributions of later pioneers like Run-D.M.C., N.W.A, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar could not have existed. His focus on breakbeats, MCing, and letting urban youth culture flourish allowed hip hop to evolve from its underground roots into the global phenomenon it is today.

There‘s no denying rap has had an enormous influence on music and culture over the past 50 years. And it all traces back to originators like DJ Kool Herc hosting parties in the Bronx. So while debates around violence and misogyny in rap still rage today, we have figures like Herc to thank for enabling young people of color to express themselves through hip hop. The world would surely sound very different without his creative innovations bringing rap music to life.

Conclusion

In summary, rap music originated in the early 1970s from DJ Kool Herc‘s innovative parties in the Bronx, before spreading across NYC with pioneers like Grandmaster Flash. Influential old school rappers like Run-D.M.C. and Beastie Boys made rap a national sensation in the 80s. West Coast gangsta rap feuded with East Coast MCs as rap exploded commercially in the 90s, led by giants like Tupac, Biggie, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and Eminem. Today rap reigns as music‘s most popular genre with over 50 years of evolution, but traces its creative roots back to Kool Herc and other founding figures in the Bronx. The legacy of hip hop‘s trailblazing originators lives on through the global reach and youth resonance rap music retains to this day.