The history of Hip-Hop is fraught with ambiguity and cliché, which distort how this phenomenon came to represent a lifestyle and culture of its own. The precision and smoothness evident in quality Hip-Hop production in no way reflects the origins of Hip-Hop culture’s formation, which has been deformed and mystified over time.

Levelling a large section of the Bronx in New York for road expansion led to the destruction of local habitation to make way for more modern housing estates, to the disarray of local communities, who found their community destroyed, and in turn required the mass construction of ugly modern housing estates, leaving major parts in destitute and confusion.

The Bronx became an increasingly unstable environment. This precarious new lifestyle proved challenging and often dangerous for the generations, which were raised in it. Within this urban junkyard, children tried to create their own sense of community, finding release by means of self-expression through clothes, music, dance and spray cans.

Creating a ‘rep’ was everything, and remained the primary concern of individuals who wanted to speak and be heard: imparting beliefs and experiences became a crucial. Thanks to local heroes such as Taki 183 and Kool DJ Herc, Hip Hop’s influence started to spread beyond 183rd Street and Sedwick Avenue, through the five boroughs, until eventually extending city wide, and then worldwide.

Today, Hip Hop is now recognised as the biggest-selling genre in modern music, accessible across the world, in many forms and many styles, created and listened to by people from all walks of life. However, in essence, Hip Hop still retains the ideals, which it represented since its birth in the Bronx in the 1970s.