Hip Hop Talk

Generations are a myth. The idea that everyone who was born around the same time has a common worldview or set of characteristics was born sometime in the 1860s, but didn’t really take off until the early 1990s.…

In this fiftieth anniversary year of hip-hop, there has been a whole lot of talk about rappers. But there has been less talk about what makes rappers great. There are plenty of qualities that make rappers notable. Some, like…

For all of the arguments over whether August 11, 2023 was really hip-hop’s 50th birthday, one thing about the culture remains clear. No matter when you think its beginnings took place, or who was responsible, hip-hop’s creation was…

Battles have been an integral part of hip-hop since the beginning. In fact, since before the beginning. Uprocking dance battles, which began in the late 1960s, were closely tied to street gang fights. Long before rappers were throwing…