Hip Hop Throughout the Decades

This month you can find many editorials and articles talking about and celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip hop music. I think this subject deserves the attention as hip hop has had such a tremendous impact-not only on American Music culture- but also to the music all around the world with creation of new genres and hip hop in many other languages. Hip hop has affected other music genres from Rock to Pop to R&B so much that many today’s rock and pop songs have incorporated hip hop style music in their form. As opposed to other styles, hip hop artists use the power of lyrics over melody to get their messages across. 

Music historians agree hip hop originated from New York in the 1970’s as a way for the young to express themselves artistically. At the time New York City was going through an economic turmoil. Most businesses and the middle class population were leaving the city. As a result, there was a demographic change in the population with young African American and other minority populations in the city trying to express themselves due to lack of other entertainment by creating a new genre of music. Due to using explicit lyrics in hip hop music, many hip hop artists were not taken seriously in the beginning. But, by the 1980’s, gradually it became mainstream and the giants like Run DMC, LL Cool J and Public Enemy to name a few, flourished in the music industry. Eventually by the 1990’s, hip hop became mainstream and music from artists like Tupac Shakur and Laruen Hill could be reached by everyone. By 2000’s hip hop took over as the most dominant music genre in the US and artists like Eminem and Jay Z were famous all around the world. By this time you could listen to Hip Hop music from Arabic to Zulu.  

Although initially men mostly dominated the Hip Hop scene, women have been involved with this genre ever since the beginning. To name a few, some of the earliest women hip hop artists were The Sequence, Salt-N-Pepa followed later by Queen Latifah, Roxane Shante. In the 1990’s women artists like Lauren Hill, Missy Elliot and Lil Kim broke the barrier for other women in Hip Hop and paved the way for other artists to reach prominence. To name a few, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, and Megan Thee Stallion became some of the biggest stars in the genre.   

Similar to other music genres, Hip Hop has gone through a huge metamorphosis. But its impact on American and global  culture is undeniable. Today many people of different ages identify themselves with various hip hop genres belonging to different decades, most likely very similar to how Rock n Roll was evolved. Who knows what the next evolution of music and Hip Hop will take us, your guess is as good as mine.