Chapter 03 — Rhythms
Hip-Hop
80s–90s
Hip-hop was born in 1970s Bronx with two turntables, a mic and a huge will to exist. From block party to indictment: Grandmaster Flash proved the DJ was an instrumentalist, Public Enemy turned the beat into a political weapon, and N.W.A narrated the street without asking permission. Hip-hop is the most important genre of the last four decades — it handed the mic to those who never had it.
Key exponents
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five
1979–1982
'The Message' took rap from the party to the social chronicle of the ghetto.
Public Enemy
1987–1990
Chuck D and a demolishing production: hip-hop as revolutionary pamphlet.
N.W.A
1988
Out of Compton, the gangsta rap that put street reality at the center of the debate.
Keep rewinding
90s
hip hop
Coolio
The number one that was really a lament
The biggest rap hit of 1995 was, deep down, a funeral: over the funereal strings of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise", a young man looks at his short, dead-end life. It won the Grammy and half the world sang it without listening closely to the words.
90s
hip hop
The Notorious B.I.G.
The greatest storyteller rap ever produced, silenced at 24
He could fit an entire life into a verse: rap lost its finest narrator at twenty-four, in a drive-by shooting nobody ever solved. He left two albums, and the second came out two weeks after the funeral with a title he had chosen beforehand.
10s
hip hop
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
They reached number one with no label, and they used that number one for something
A song about buying used clothes in second-hand stores went to the very top of the American chart with no major record company behind it. And at the peak of that fame, the Seattle duo chose to spend it on "Same Love", while their state was voting on marriage equality.
00s
hip hop
50 Cent
He was shot nine times, survived, and turned that into an empire
He survived a point-blank attack in Queens in the year 2000 and put that story at the center of his persona. Then he did the rarest thing in rap: turning fame into capital, with a drinks brand that Coca-Cola ended up buying and television series of his own.
90s
hip hop
Cypress Hill
The Simpsons made a joke in 1996, and they delivered on it 28 years later
In 1996 The Simpsons joked that a stoned rap band had ordered the London Symphony Orchestra. In July 2024 the joke came true for real, at the Royal Albert Hall. By then they were already the first Latinos in rap to reach platinum.
10s
hip hop
Post Malone
He belongs to no genre, and that is why he belongs to everyone
He started out with the hip hop of "White Iverson", moved on to the pop of "Circles" and in 2024 released a whole country album. The result is an audience that does not normally share a favorite artist: the trap crowd and the country crowd sitting at the same table.
90s
hip hop
Fugees
Three children of exile made one perfect album, and that was enough
The name came from "refugees", and it was no side note: two of the three were of Haitian origin. In 1996 they mixed reggae, soul and New Jersey hip hop, gave the world back "Killing Me Softly" and then scattered almost at once.
80s
hip hop
Beastie Boys
How you grow up
Three noisy clowns who ended up among the most creative and most decent musicians of their generation. They made the record that sank them and turned out to be their monument, and apologised inside a song.
90s
hip hop
Delinquent Habits
The sound that went round three times
The trumpet in «Tres Delinquentes» is not Morricone's. It belongs to a Los Angeles trumpeter who recorded it alone in his garage imitating mariachis, and founded A&M Records with it.
00s
hip hop
Eminem
Saying it before the other guy
In the final battle of "8 Mile" he doesn't wait for the blow: he says every one of his own miseries before his rival can use them. That was the strategy of his whole career.
70s
hip hop
What's the Difference Between Rap and Hip-Hop?
The answer almost everyone gets wrong, and why getting it right changes how you hear half a century of music. The four elements, the 1973 Bronx party, and the KRS-One line that settles it: rap is something you do, hip-hop is something you live.