The Evolution of Hip-Hop

Early Beginnings

The many artists credited with the founding of Hip-Hop culture include the party-throwing, DJ Kool-Herc, along with Grandmaster Flash, Fab 5 Freddy, Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Moe Dee, and Doug E. Fresh. All 6 contributed to the evolution of music into the style that it has become today, starting with different instrumentals and eventually into ad-libs and modern works.

Kool Herc, is best known for throwing the first, and arguably the best, hip-hop party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx (1973). He was known for his cool new style of keeping people on their feet, using his knowledge of beat mixing and his upbeat lines, such as, "Rock on, my mellow" and "To the beat, y'all." Grandmaster Flash was also brought up in the Bronx, and eventually engineered the most common way of handling the turntables. He marked them up with grease, highlighter, etc and used them to aid his productions. Fab 5 Freddy was different than that rest of the founders because he learned how invent jazz techniques in hip-hop, mastering the most beautiful sounds in the world. The list goes on and on and frankly there isn't enough room on this page to fit all of them.

Early 2000s

Jumping ahead to the early 2000s, many old age rappers were making a rise into the limelight. Artists such as Tupac, Ice Cube, and Biggie had already made their contribution to hip-hop / rap culture in the mid to late 1990's, and the baton had to be passed on to the new generation. Lil Wayne, Eminem, Kanye West, and many others helped aid the transition between old age rapping and the more abundantly performed music in today's world.

Even though these rappers are considered "old" by today's youth, don't be fooled, they are not done with the this industry just yet. Eminem's surprise album Kamikaze was released on August 31, adding a little zest to the final hours of the long awaited summer vacation. Less than a month later Lil Wayne's long awaited Tha Carter V dropped, hosting huge hits such as Mona Lisa (feat. Kendrick Lamar), Uproar, and Dedicate.

Modern Music

Even though these 2000s rappers, as they are called, are clearly not primed to hand over the wand to the younger people, modern culture has taken off throughout the nation. A number of people, mainly in their teens, have released a slew of songs through the music streaming app SoundCloud, an easy and effective way to get you music out to a huge chunk of the world. They are rappers known as Lil pump, Lil Skies, Yung Bans, Playboi Carti, and the list on gets longer everyday. Although many of these artists are now larger on the more famous streaming app, Spotify, they all have originated from SoundCloud and have a connection to it.

Although they are not officially formed 'gangs', they are are groups of rappers that have a connection because of name similarities and other connections. The most obvious example would be the Lil's; they aren't a formed but there are a number of artists that have the word 'Lil' as the first word in their names. The list goes: Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Yachty, Lil Wayne, Lil Baby, Lil Xan, Lil Pump, Lil Skies, and then many more smaller artists. Another one could be the Young's, although sometimes also spelled 'Yung'; the list starts with one of the most influential rappers since the start of the new century, Young Thug, then come in NBA Youngboy, Young M.A, and Yung Bans.

There still are rappers with unique names such as Future, Chance the Rapper, Travis Scott, and more. It is unlikely for any artist to use their real name as their producing name, but there are instances of this. For example Drake's real name is Aubrey Drake Graham, and Kendrick Lamar Duckworth's pseudonym is simply Kendrick Lamar.