Hip-Hop
1973 – 9 Feb 202561 items
musicFrom a rec room in the Bronx to the whole world
On a summer night in 1973 an 18-year-old DJ played his sister’s back-to-school party in the recreation room of a Bronx apartment block. Fifty years later the music that grew out of parties like it was the most-consumed genre in the United States, had won a Pulitzer Prize, and was being danced for Olympic medals in Paris. This timeline follows that half-century: the parties, the records, the money, the courtrooms, the deaths, and the scenes that grew up in Paris, Marseille, Tokyo, Seoul, Dakar, Lagos, São Paulo and East London.
How it is laid out
Overlapping bands for the eras: the old school, the painted trains, the golden age, West Coast gangsta rap, the South’s rise, the East–West feud, grime and the streaming era.
Records as events on their release days, prizes and court rulings on the day they were handed down.
The map runs from 1520 Sedgwick Avenue to Compton, Atlanta, Houston and New Orleans, and on to four continents.
Threads to follow
Filter by the four elements, djing, mcing, breaking and graffiti, then production for the beats and the machines that made them, and worldwide for the scenes outside the United States. albums, law, business, television, protest and women are threads shared with the other timelines.
The South got somethin’ to say! — André 3000 of OutKast, booed at the 1995 Source Awards in New York
Lyrics are described rather than quoted. Dates are local and in the Gregorian calendar throughout.
Items
Back-to-school party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue
Grand Wizzard Theodore finds the scratch
“Rapper’s Delight”
Sally Banes puts breaking in print
“The Message”
“Planet Rock”
The Wild Style crew tours Japan
H.I.P. H.O.P. on French television
“Rockit” at the Grammys
Def Jam starts in a dormitory
“Roxanne’s Revenge”
“Subway Art” is published
Run-DMC and Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way”
“Licensed to Ill” tops the Billboard 200
Eric B. & Rakim’s “Paid in Full”
N.W.A’s “Straight Outta Compton”
Yo! MTV Raps
The first rap Grammy, and a boycott
Positive Black Soul forms in Dakar
“Ice Ice Baby” reaches No. 1
MC Solaar’s “Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo”
“Thou shalt not steal”: the Biz Markie ruling
Seo Taiji and Boys debut on Korean television
Advanced Chemistry’s “Fremd im eigenen Land”
Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic”
Wu-Tang Clan’s “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)”
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose: parody can be fair use
Nas’s “Illmatic”
OutKast’s “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik”
Tupac Shakur shot at Quad Studios
The 1995 Source Awards
Tupac Shakur dies
The Notorious B.I.G. is killed
IAM’s “L’École du micro d’argent”
Racionais MC’s “Sobrevivendo no Inferno”
Juvenile’s “400 Degreez”
Lauryn Hill wins Album of the Year
DJ Screw dies in Houston
Eminem wins the Oscar
T.I.’s “Trap Muzik”
Dizzee Rascal wins the Mercury Prize
OutKast win Album of the Year
The first Hip Hop World Awards in Lagos
Y’en a marre
Apple buys Beats
“Hamilton” opens on Broadway
Hip-hop and R&B overtake rock
Kendrick Lamar wins the Pulitzer Prize
Jay-Z becomes a billionaire
Stormzy headlines Glastonbury
Hip Hop 50 Live at Yankee Stadium
Breaking at the Paris Olympics
Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show