It was August 11, 1973. On this day, Clive Campbell aka DJ Kool Herc hosts his sister Cindy's birthday party in a party hall in the Bronx. For some time, the DJ has been developing a new technique that he intends to introduce to the public: he plays the same record on two different turntables and then isolates rhythm sequences, modifies tempos, and makes them loop. This is the beginning of breakbeat, the broken rhythm at the origin of rap and hip-hop. Without knowing it, DJ Kool Herc has just launched a revolution – a cultural movement mixing dance, visual art and music that will soon conquer the world.
"Rapper's Delight" - The Sugarhill Gang (1979)
In this pivotal year, hip-hop is still a nascent genre that we listen to during festive evenings called "block parties". We exchange cassettes under the cloak at best but recordings are rare and of low quality. Until The Sugarhill Gang, a band made from scratch by the entrepreneur Sylvia Robinson who smells before anyone else the good vein represented by this festive music. Steeped in disco – the track was composed on the plot of "Good Times" by Chic – "Rapper's Delight" is the first mainstream success of hip-hop. It is also this title that would have established the term "hip-hop" because of the first lyrics of the song: "I said-a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie / To the hip hip hop-a you don't stop the rock / It to the bang-bang boogie, say up jump the boogie / To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat".
"Planet Rock" - Afrika Bambaataa (1982)
Founding father of hip-hop with DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa is an American DJ famous since the late 1970s for his "block parties" allowing young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods to express their creativity and get away from gang violence. A few years later, his flagship song "Planet Rock" helped popularize the sound of drum machines and spread this new genre worldwide. The title is based in particular on the melody of "Trans-Europe Express" by the Germans of Kraftwerk, a pioneer group of electronic music.
"The Message" - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1982)
This monument is not only one of the best hip hop tracks of all time but it also marks the emergence of a politically engaged rap or "conscious" rap that will reach its peak in the 1980s with the African-American activism of Public Enemy. Far from the joyful and festive lyrics of the first raps, "The Message" delivers a clinical description of the daily life of a Bronx resident marked by poverty, drugs and boredom.
"Fuck tha Police" - N.W.A (1988)
N.W.A's debut album, which featured producer Dr. Dre and rapper Ice Cube, was a turning point in hip-hop history by popularizing the gangsta style. With its raw lyrics and sharp sounds, this record in perpetual tension evokes with mastery the social violence that reigns in the black ghettos of the United States. Upon its release, the record caused a scandal with the title "Fuck tha Police" which became an anthem during the Los Angeles riots in 1992.
"U.N.I.T.Y." - Queen Latifah (1993)
If the world of hip-hop is still largely dominated by men, female artists are beginning to make a place for themselves. Among them, "the first lady of hip-hop", Dana Elaine Owens, who will pave the way for all the others with the album "All Hail the Queen" in 1989. The New Jersey native is one of the first to tackle sexism and misogyny in rap in her lyrics. In 1995, she won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance for the album "U.N.I.T.Y.", her biggest commercial success.
"C.R.E.A.M" - Wu-Tang Clan (1994)
With the album "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)", the New York collective pushes the art of sampling or sampling to a level never before equaled and wins a significant round in the match against the west coast of the United States. Produced by the brilliant RZA, "C.R.E.A.M.", an acronym for "Cash Rules Everything Around Me", enters directly into the pantheon of hip-hop with an unforgettable piano sample concocted from the first bars of a forgotten soul track of the 1960s, "As Long as I've Got You" by the Charmels.
"Sabotage" - Beastie Boys (1994)
The Beastie Boys struck a blow in January 1994 with "Sabotage" – the first single from their fourth studio album, "Ill Communication" – a title with rock and punk accents that detonated in the world of rap. Considered a pinnacle of "rapcore", one of the many subgenres of hip-hop, the title is a considerable success, thanks to the bludgeoning on the MTV music channel of its iconic video directed bySpike Jonze.
"Tomorrow is far away" - IAM (1996)
Recorded in pain between Paris, Marseille and New York, "L'Ecole du micro d'argent" remains to this day the best-selling French rap album of all time. Strongly influenced by the American productions of the time, Akhenaton, Shurik'n, DJ Kheops and Imhotep develop here a martial and stripped hip-hop served by emblematic texts, like this "Demain, c'est loin", recognized by many fans as the best French rap song ever written.
"Juicy" - The Notorious B.I.G. (1997)
The name The Notorious B.I.G. remains inseparable from the tragic turn that will take the rivalry between rappers East Coast and West Coast in the 1990s. Six months after the murder of Death Row Records protégé Tupac Shakur, "Biggie" was shot dead on March 9, 1997 in Los Angeles. Two cases that continue to fuel speculation about the sponsors. The Notorious B.I.G. left behind two albums, including the prophetic "Ready to Die" featuring the unstoppable "Juicy".
"Still D.R.E." - Dr. Dre (1999)
In 1999, Dr. Dre demonstrated that he was ahead of his time with the album "2001". The legendary producer not only lays the foundations of the hedonistic and bling-bling rap that will soon sweep the airwaves but he also propels to the forefront the most influential rappers of the coming decade, such as Eminem or Jay-Z, the latter having written for Dre and Snoop Dog this heady "Still D.R.E.".
"Power" - Kanye West (2010)
Considered the best record of businessman rapper Kanye West, ranked seventeenth out of 500 among the greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" is an epic and baroque project that largely transcends the rap category. Example with the audacious "Power", the first single of the album.
"Alright" - Kendrick Lamar (2015)
As it ages, rap continues to mature and mixes with other musical trends, giving rise to a plethora of subgenres such as afro trap or cloud rap. But the great master of hip-hop hybridization is Kendrick Lamar. With his free jazz, soul, funk and spoken word influences, the native of Compton puts everyone in agreement with his third studio album entitled "To Pimp a Butterfly", on which appears the track "Alright" which points to police violence and discrimination against African-Americans.
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