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The Beginning
Rap had been a growing on the streets of New York for several years with funk soul and disco coinciding with social upheaval. But it had been confined to parties in parks schools and nightclubs until one entrepreneur put together The Sugarhill Gang. They put a song Rapper's Delight onto vinyl and it became the first rap tune to hit the charts and airwaves taking the new musical style to a national wide audience for the first time. -
Television
The Funky 4 Plus One became the first rap act to perform on a US network TV show Saturday Night Live. -
First Rap Music Video
Whodini becomes the first rap group to shoot an official video for their song "Magic's Wand." -
Reaching New Heights
RunDMCs third album Raising Hell and single Walk This Way made them the first rap act to fully cross over into the mainstream appealing to rock and hip hop fans alike and becoming the first rap act embraced by MTV. White expunks The Beastie Boys similarly mixed rap and rock on their debut album Licensed to Ill the first rap album to hit number one and the best selling rap album of the 1980s but were dismissed as phony and inauthentic by some purists. -
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Chart Friendly With Pop Crossovers
Rap moved into pop territory more than ever before with two huge hits MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This and Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby. -
Evolution
Rappers, like Schoolly D, Ice T, Tupac, Easy E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Snoop Dog, chose instead to develop gangsta rap, which glorifies the gangster lifestyle -- violence, drugs, sex, and of course, gangs. They rapped about how it was to grow up their neighborhoods. -
Wu Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan were assembled as a loose congregation of nine MCs, almost as a support group. -
Doggystyle
Snoop Doggy Dogg releases his highly-anticipated solo debut, "DoggyStyle". The album is a huge hit, becoming the first debut album to enter the Billboard chart at #1. -
War
East versus west coast feud erupts into bloody battle -
Realization
Marred with violent deaths surrounding the genre -- most notably those of Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, many high-profile artists agreed it was time to tone down the violent feuds among rappers and keep the threats in lyrics. -
Slim Shady Emerges
Eminem emerged to become the first rapper to eclipse rock and pop idols as the nation's biggest music star. -
The Marshall Mathers LP
Eminem dropped The Marshall Mathers LP into the perfect storm for racking up album sales. The Marshall Mathers LP is one of the most critically acclaimed hip-hop albums of all time, which brought in fans from other genres who were generally curious to hear his words. The hype was such that Eminem even broke Britney Spears' record for the best-selling week for a solo artist. -
Eminem
Eminem stars in the film, "8 Mile". The film won an Oscar for the theme song ''Lose Yourself'' -
Encore
Eminem releases his album 'Encore' on November 12th, four days earlier than planned because of being leaked over the internet. The album went four-times platinum. -
Drake
Drake starts a new era of rap and becomes one of most listened to rapper for the time being. -
Kendrick Lamar and J Cole
Kendrick Lamar and J Cole start their rapping careers in the 2010s and start to take over the rapping nation. Kendrick Lamar Becomes on of the best rappers at the moment and they both become very inspirational to upcoming rappers, and they were both inspires by rappers like Eminem, Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. -
The Marshall Mathers LP2
Eminem makes a sequel to his hit album The Marshall Mathers LP -
Logic
Logic, who was inspired by Kendrick Lamar, Nas, J Cole, and Eminem, takes a new turn on rapping just like they did and is at the time starting to rise to the top just like they did and still are.
