Hip hop is a term used to define an urban culture which developed amongst poor black and latino youths in early 1970's America, particularly in New York and Philadelphia. The culture includes rap, which grew out of the 'toasting' element of Jamaica dub music, the distant origins of which lie in the musical style of West African griots.

Modern hip hop developed from so-called 'block parties' (neighbourhood celebrations) in which MC's would isolate the percussion track of funk and soul records to excite the revellers into a dance frenzy. This trend grew in popularity as funk and disco declined in the late 1970's, and by the 1980's artists like Kurtis Blow, LL Cool J. and Run-DMC. entered the mainstream, the latter's collaboration with Aerosmith for WALK THIS WAY in 1986 representing a major breakthrough for the style.

The 1980's also saw hip hop diversify. Afrika Bambaataa's 1982 single Planet Rock, which sampled a Kraftwerk melody and elements from Ennio Morricone, led to the development of 'electro-funk' dance music, most notably 'house' in Chicago and 'techno' in Detroit. New Jack Swing, a fusion of soul and hip hop, also began to emerge, eventually leading by 2000 to the so-called 'nu soul' of Mary J.Blighe and others.

In the 1990's the often violent and misogynistic lyrics of West Coast Gangsta Rap featuring artists like Ice-T, Dr.Dre and Snoop Dogg broke through to dominated the charts, although the commercial high point of the whole genre came in 2000 when Eminem's THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP sold 9 million copies.

Strictly in terms of traditional songwriting hip hop could be considered as barren ground with it's tendency to lift directly from other musical styles and it's concentration on percussion at the expense of melody. On the other hand lyrics are a major part of songwriting, and in this department rap in particular can be highly inventive, often providing much needed insight into young people's experience of modern life. Today the style has penetrated so deep into the mainstream it is clearly evident even in the teen pop of Britney Spears and The Backstreet Boys.

Despite this commercialisation and infiltration, at its heart hip hop remains a roots movement of modern youth culture, most countries of the world now having a local rap scene. Its very nature is an upwelling of disconnection and disillusion, a phenomenon neatly summed up by Robert Christgau of Village Voice in 2010 when he said that hip hop is "custom-made to combat the anomie that preys on adolescents wherever nobody knows their name".

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