ABSTRACT
Hip-hop culture originated in the South Bronx in the 1970s amid social and political turmoil in New York City. Each of the so-called Founding Fathers of rap—DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and Afrika Bambaataa—contributed something significant to the style. Early hip hop emerged from the fusion of African-American and Caribbean styles, but contributions by Puerto Ricans and women—largely overlooked in many histories of hip hop—played an important role. Hip hop was first and foremost party music, and it was the responsibility of the DJs and their MCs to keep the party going. Rap existed only as live performance in its early days and was primarily improvised: it would be almost five years until the first rap record was released. Since its beginnings, rap has been a very self-aware genre, recording, revising, and repeating its histories.
