Key Takeaways

• Hip-hop began as a local New York City subculture before evolving into a globally influential music genre.
• Early innovators like DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash shaped hip-hop’s core techniques and culture.
• Commercial breakthroughs such as “Rapper’s Delight” helped bring hip-hop to mainstream audiences.
• The four pillars of hip-hop – MCing, DJing, breaking, and graffiti – define the genre’s creative foundation.
• Firsthand journalism and historical records preserve the cultural impact of hip-hop’s formative years.

Simone Monasebian’s long and distinguished career in law, human rights, and international justice began with an early chapter that connects directly to hip-hop’s formative years. Before becoming Chief Program Officer at Sanctuary for Families, she was one of the first journalists to cover hip-hop culture for a national audience as the East Coast correspondent for Radioscope.

Today, Monasebian oversees statewide programming for New York’s leading service provider for survivors of gender-based violence, drawing on 30-plus years of experience across the United Nations, international tribunals, criminal defense, legal academia, and high-level policy advocacy. Her background includes prosecuting war crimes at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, leading the legal aid pillar at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, directing UNODC’s New York Office, and appearing as a national legal analyst.

Her early reporting experience gives her a personal connection to hip-hop’s origins, making her uniquely positioned to reflect on the genre’s earliest innovators and cultural roots.

Early Innovators Who Shaped Hip-Hop’s Foundation

A niche subculture in New York City during the early 1970s, hip-hop has since grown into one of the most popular music genres. The Grammys added a category for hip-hop in 1989 and now has five award categories, including Best Rap Album and Best Rap Solo Performance. Meanwhile, modern rappers like Eminem, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and Jay-Z all have more than 70 million equivalent album sales.

These and other popular hip-hop artists owe their success in part to the genre’s earliest innovators, including Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, and The Treacherous Three.

The Sugarhill Gang, a trio composed of Wonder Mike, Big Bank Hank, and Master G, helped bring hip-hop to the masses in 1979 with their single, “Rapper’s Delight.” Ranked No. 2 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs, the catchy song opens with, “I said a hip hop, the hippie, the hippie to the hip-hip-hop and you don’t stop.” It regularly played in nightclubs and on radio stations, expanding hip-hop’s reach from the Bronx to the rest of the US.

The commercial success of Rapper’s Delight not only brought hip-hop to broader audiences but also encouraged record labels to invest in talented artists, fueling a wave of growth and excitement in hip-hop throughout the 1980s.

Blowfly, an alternative musician who primarily wrote parody and R&B songs and performed in bizarre costumes, was another early performer in the genre. His 1980 hit, “Rapp Dirty,” was a popular “party record,” with songs best described as “outrageous tales told in rhyme or over infectious grooves.” Blowfly, whose real name is Clarence Reid, apparently recorded an early version of “Rapp Dirty” in the mid-1960s. AKA Dolemite and Rudy Ray Moore were among the other leading figures in the “party records” movement.

Rapping, or MCing, is just one of the four pillars of hip-hop, along with DJing, breaking, and graffiti art. DJ Kool Herc was a pioneer on the turntables and considered by some to be hip-hop’s founding father. A Jamaican immigrant, he introduced the “breakbeat” DJ technique, which sampled drum breaks from popular jazz-funk songs. Kool Herc also created “The Merry-Go-Round” breakbeat style, in which he spun two copies of the same record to prolong the break, or percussive section.

Kool Herc’s prolonged breaks allowed breakers in dance circles more time to showcase their moves. He eventually named these performers B-boys and B-girls, terms now synonymous with breakdancing. Some consider Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash the “Holy Trinity” of hip-hop.

A DJ, music producer, and founder of the Universal Zulu Nation, Bambaataa routinely hosted block parties in the Bronx in the late 1970s and is credited with categorizing the four pillars of hip-hop. He also helped popularize the Roland TR-808 drum machine, a staple of modern hip-hop, with his 1982 song “Planet Rock.”

Also a Bronx DJ, Grandmaster Flash was the first to manipulate records with forward, backward, or counterclockwise motion. He invented scratching, punch phrasing, and the backspin, among other DJing techniques. Along with the Furious Five, he had several hit songs, including “The Message,” which marked a notable shift in tone from early hip-hop songs. In 2007, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were the first hip-hop group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Note: I was lucky to be one of the first journalists covering hip hop and rap culture as Radioscope’s East Coast Correspondent in the early 80s, interviewing artists at many hip hop clubs such as The Fever. The most comprehensive story I covered was the break up of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five into two groups: Grandmaster Flash recording separately with some members of the group from Grandmaster Melle Mel, and am credited in the liner notes of Flash’s 1985 album “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done.”

FAQs

Who were the earliest innovators of hip-hop?

Key early innovators include DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, and groups such as the Furious Five and The Treacherous Three.

What role did DJ Kool Herc play in hip-hop’s creation?

DJ Kool Herc pioneered breakbeat DJing, extending drum breaks to give dancers more time to perform, laying the groundwork for hip-hop culture.

Why was “Rapper’s Delight” significant in hip-hop history?

Released by The Sugarhill Gang in 1979, it introduced hip-hop to mainstream audiences and encouraged record labels to invest in the genre.

What are the four pillars of hip-hop?

The four pillars are MCing (rapping), DJing, breaking (dance), and graffiti art, each contributing to hip-hop’s cultural identity.

How did early journalism help shape hip-hop’s legacy?

Early journalists documented performances, artists, and turning points, preserving hip-hop’s history before it reached global popularity.

About Simone Monasebian

Simone Monasebian is a New York–based attorney and human-rights advocate with more than three decades of experience across international criminal law, civil rights, and gender-based violence prevention. Before becoming Chief Program Officer at Sanctuary for Families, she served in leadership roles with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Earlier in her career, she was one of the first journalists to cover hip-hop nationally. A graduate of NYU and Syracuse University College of Law, she continues to combine legal expertise, advocacy, and public engagement in service of vulnerable communities.