What We Misunderstand About Hip-Hop

Much has been written in the past year about hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, which historians trace back to a back-to-school party thrown in a South Bronx appartment my DJ Kool Herc.

During that now infamous event, Herc cut together the instrumental breaks of popular songs using two turntables using a technique he called the “merry go-round”. He also got on the microphone, urging the partygoers to dance and shout in what would later be described as an “MC” capacity.

However, the origin story of hip-hop as a musical form is just one of many stories that need to be told about hip-hop’s meteoric rise from a Bronx project in 1973 to worldwide dominance. Hip-hop is more than just a musical revolution; it is a way of life, says Write About Now guest Todd Boyd, who has written and curated a new book called Rappers Deluxe: How Hip Hop Made the World that chronicles hip hop's defining moments each decade. Using photographs, movie posters, fine art, album covers, film, and sports stills, he paints an often misunderstood portrait of hip-hop's influences.

“I was interested in telling a story about how this evolved as a culture and how it affected film, art, sports, fashion, politics, language. I was interested in how this genre of music was able to impact all these other areas and create what I consider to be a cultural movement,” he says.

In our interview, he talks about the ways hip-hop has seeped into almost every facet of our daily lives, and why it will continue to endure and grow.