Hip hop facts for kids

Two hip hop DJs creating new music by mixing tracks from multiple record players. Pictured are DJ Hypnotize (left) and Baby Cee (right).

A graffiti artist uses his artwork to make a funny social statement about censorship.

Hip hop is a cool culture and art style that began in the 1970s. It started in big cities across the United States. People from Jamaican-American, African-American, and Latino-American communities helped create it.

Hip hop is famous for its music, especially a style called rapping. Rapping is when a singer or group speaks words with a strong rhythm that rhymes. The words in hip hop songs often tell stories about city life. Hip hop music also uses sounds from other music styles like pop music, disco, and reggae. Today, rap and hip hop are very popular music types around the world.

Beyond music, hip hop is a whole culture! It includes a special way of dressing, often called "urban" clothes. Think baggy pants, work boots, and big shirts. There's also a dancing style called breakdancing or "B-Boying." And don't forget graffiti, which is street art where people paint pictures or words on walls.

In the 2000s, hip hop music and culture became super popular in the United States and Canada. Many famous hip hop musicians use cool nicknames. Some popular artists from the 2000s include Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Eminem, Lil' Wayne, and 50-Cent.

Rapping: Speaking with a Beat

Rapper and businessman Jay-Z performing on stage.

Rapping is a unique way of singing. It's like a mix between talking and singing. The words are spoken with a clear rhythm, and they often rhyme. This style grew from rhyming games that African-Americans played. It also came from Jamaican "toasting," which is chanting and rhyming into a microphone.

The music behind rapping usually has a simple beat that repeats. Sometimes the rapper makes this beat themselves. Other times, they use sounds copied from special music CDs. This simple beat usually plays through the whole song, except for the main chorus part.

Famous Rappers and Styles

Some of the first popular hip hop groups in the 1980s were Run DMC and The Sugarhill Gang. As hip hop grew, some rappers started using strong language in their songs. This style was sometimes called "gangsta rap." This type of music began in the 1980s and is still made today.

Well-known early rappers include Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, The Notorious B.I.G., Eminem, and Sean "P-Diddy" Combs. More modern rappers you might know are 50-Cent, Eminem, Jay-Z, Nas, and Kanye West. Rap music is now created in almost every country around the world!

Did you know there's a record for the fastest rapper? According to Guinness World Records, Ricky Brown from the United States is the fastest. On January 15, 2005, he rapped an amazing 723 syllables in just 51.27 seconds!

Images for kids

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  Afrika Bambaataa with DJ Yutaka of Universal Zulu Nation in 2004

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  DJ Kool Herc, a Jamaican DJ, is known as one of the first hip hop DJs and artists. Many say he started hip hop music with his "Back to School Jam" in 1973.

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  1520 Sedgwick Avenue, the Bronx, New York. This place was used by Kool Herc and is often called the birthplace of hip hop on August 11, 1973.

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  The Sugarhill Gang used the song "Good Times" by the disco band Chic for the beat of their 1979 hit "Rapper's Delight". This picture shows the Sugarhill Gang at a concert in 2016.

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  DJ Jazzy Jeff, who also produces music, using a record turntable in England in 2005.

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  The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, a classic sound in hip hop music.

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  DJ Marley Marl.

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  Grandmaster Flash performing in 1999.

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  Run-DMC, from left to right: Joseph "Run" Simmons, Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell, and Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels.

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  KRS-One and his group Boogie Down Productions were important performers during the "golden age" of hip hop.

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  Flavor Flav of Public Enemy performing in 1991.

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  Wu-Tang Clan at the Virgin Festival in 2007.

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  Dr. Dre performing with Snoop Dogg in 2012.

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  Rapper Scarface from the southern U.S. group Geto Boys.

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  Birdman performing in 2010.

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  Eminem performing in Munich, Germany in 1999.

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  50 Cent performing in 2012.

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  The Glitch Mob performing in the Netherlands in 2010.

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  Producer Lil Jon is one of the most famous people in crunk music.

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  Soulja Boy in an interview with Bandai Namco Entertainment at E3 2018.

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  Even though hip hop music sales dropped in the mid-late 2000s, rappers like Flo Rida were very successful online and with single songs.

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  Kanye West performing in 2008.

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  In 2009, Time magazine put M.I.A. on their Time 100 list of "World's Most Influential People."

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  Cupcakke in 2018.

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  Lil Nas X became famous in the 2010s. He became very popular in 2019 and is the first openly gay rapper to have mainstream success.

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  Doja Cat was the most streamed rapper on Spotify in 2021.

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  The most streamed hip hop album of all time on Spotify is XXXTentacion's second album, ? (2018).

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  Pete Rock performing at Razel and Friends – Brooklyn Bowl, 2016.

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  De La Soul at the Gorillaz tour, Demon Days Live in 2005.

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  The yearly Blockfest in Tampere, Finland is the biggest hip hop music event in the Nordic countries. It's also one of the festivals that sells the most tickets in advance. This picture is from Blockfest in 2017.

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  The German rapper Fler in 2011.

See also

In Spanish: Música hip hop para niños

• List of hip hop musicians