Genre guide

Rap and hip-hop.
The defining voice of a generation.

Rap emerged in the 1970s from the block parties of the Bronx, where DJs isolated the breakbeat and MCs began rhyming over it - the musical core of the wider culture of hip-hop. Built on rhythm, wordplay, and the art of the spoken voice, it grew from a local New York scene into the dominant sound of global popular music. From old-school party records to conscious rap, Southern trap, and a Pulitzer Prize, rap has become both the most commercially powerful and the most lyrically ambitious genre of its era.

From the genre's founders to the names still being discovered.