In case you missed it, yesterday was the 44th anniversary of the birth of HipHop.
Google joined in on the celebration with a first-of-its-kind doodle featuring a custom logo, graphic by famed graffiti artist Cey Adams.
The honorary doodle also included interactive turntables on which users can mix samples from legendary tracks, and a serving of Hip Hop history - with an emphasis on its founding pioneers.
What’s more, the whole experience was narrated by Hip Hop icon Fab 5 Freddy, former, host of “Yo! MTV Raps.”
In the words of YouTube’s Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen (and former head of Def Jam Records), the celebration is of a “cultural revolution that's spanned 44 years and counting”.
It all started in the NYC Bronx, more commonly known as the Boogie Down Bronx, he says.
History captures the birth of this famous music genre at what may be the world’s most famous block party.
On August 11, 1973, an 18-year-old, Jamaican-American DJ who went by the name of Kool Herc threw a back-to-school jam at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, New York.
During his set, he decided to do something different. Instead of playing the songs in full, he played only their instrumental sections, or “breaks” - sections where he noticed the crowd went wild. During these “breaks” his friend Coke La Rock hyped up the crowd with a microphone. And with that, Hip Hop was born.
Cohen adds that back then, times were particularly tough.
“The youth needed an outlet - a unifying sound, a beat, a voice to call their own. The Bronx DJ’s and MC’s rose to the task and the city loved them for it…It should be noted that early Hip Hop stood against the violence and drug culture that pervaded the time.”
In the years since DJ Kool, hip-hop culture has become a major force across music, dance, art, fashion and a whole lot more.