Hip Hop Evolution

7.5
201650m

Hip-Hop today is a global culture that has changed music, dance, fashion, language —and even politics. But where did this worldwide cultural movement begin? We trace hip-hop back to its humble beginnings, when the kids of the Bronx crammed into house parties, rec rooms, and public parks to hear music like they’d never heard it before.

Trailers & Videos

Thumbnail for video: Hip-Hop Evolution Series Trailer

Hip-Hop Evolution Series Trailer

Seasons

4 Episodes • Premiered 2016

Still image for Hip Hop Evolution season 1 episode 1: The Foundation

1. The Foundation

1.0

Bronx-based DJs set Hip-Hop's sonic foundations. MCs, inspired by African American oral traditions, create the modern template for rap music, culminating with the emergence of Hip-Hop's first crew, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

Still image for Hip Hop Evolution season 1 episode 2: From The Underground to The Mainstream

2. From The Underground to The Mainstream

1.0

Hip-Hop crews in the Bronx and Harlem begin to form around the DJs, but these pioneering groups never record any music. It would take R&B veterans to see the genre’s commercial potential and create Hip-Hop's first hit, "Rapper's Delight."

Still image for Hip Hop Evolution season 1 episode 3: The New Guard

3. The New Guard

1.0

Run-DMC ushers in a new era of Hip-Hop. Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin build Hip-Hop's first empire, Def Jam. An unknown producer finds a new way to make beats and launches Hip-Hop's Golden Age, culminating in the epic fury of Public Enemy.

Still image for Hip Hop Evolution season 1 episode 4: The Birth of Gangsta Rap

4. The Birth of Gangsta Rap

1.0

Ice-T uses Hip-Hop to reflect the violence of Los Angeles and inspires a new form of Hip-Hop: Gangsta Rap. N.W.A’s first album, Straight Outta Compton, shocks America. After the LA Rebellion, Dr. Dre makes The Chronic, and creates Hip-Hop’s first hardcore pop record

Cast

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Reviews

G

GenerationofSwine

1/10

OK, in the title it has the word EVOLUTION.

Unfortunately it's broken into regions. East and west and Chicago and Atlanta and...

That doesn't work for someone like me that really doesn't follow hip-hop, but loves most music and wants to learn about it's evolution.

Here and there you get little beeds on knoweldge, like how it originated from Funk, how a lot of the stars I have heard about came from this or that club, how it has roots with the Black Panthers...

...but none of that is presented in a way that you can look at the series and understand how it moved to become what it is.

I mean, I am from the 90s, I understand the East Coast/West Coast thing. I get that, but I also get that hip-hop had to originate and evolve to even get to that, and that evolution is why I watched the series.

It's cool that I learned things about an art form I really don't pay attention to, I just wish they would have covered how hip-hop actually evolved as a whole before they did the regional thing.

You've reached the end.