The words "hip" and "hop" in combination have a long history. In the 1950s, older folks referred to teen house parties as "hippity hops". The… See more

Origins
Hip hop as music and culture formed during the 1970s in New York City from the multicultural exchange between African Americans and … See more

The new school of hip hop was the second wave of hip hop music, originating in 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D.M.C. and LL Cool J. As with the hip hop preceding it (which … See more

Commercialization and new directions
During the late 1990s, in the wake of the deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., a new commercial sound emerged in the hip hop… See more

Musical genres from which hip hop developed include funk, blues, jazz and rhythm and blues recordings from the 1960s, 1950s, and earlier, including several records by … See more

Transition to recording
The earliest hip hop music was performed live, at house parties and block party events, and it was not… See more

Hip hop's "golden age" (or "golden era") is a name given to a period in mainstream hip hop, produced between the mid-1980s and the… See more