Hip-Hop garnered its immediate roots form elements of reggae music and Jamaican dance hall toasting along with R&B, disco, and Funk. In the early 1970's, Dj Kool Herc from Kingston Jamaica moved to the South Bronx, NewYork. He was an emcee who recited rhymes over dubbed reggae music which started from dance halls to the crowd between song breaks. Afrika Bambaataa said that this was the "Certain part of the record that everybody waits for, they jus let their inner self go and get wild". They were talking about the break being extended in the mixing between two copies of the same record. The instruments of the day rapping era were the turntable, rapping, the drum machine, sampler, synthesizer, and human beat boxing. Evolution to the drum machine allowed musicians to develop, partially original scores. Quality drum sequences became the most important focus of Hip-Hop musicians because rhythms (beats) were the most dance-able part of the music. Drum machines were equipped to strong kick sounds to emulate drum solos on old Funk, Soul, and R&B albums from the late 1960's to early mid 70's. The sampler changed production because it could reproduce small sounds from clips from any input device, such as a turntable. Musicians could sample various sounds and incorporate them in their music. This became known as the Hip-Hop complete band.

Just playing the music was termed Dj-ing but with party shouts a term called emceeing was coined which would eventually evolve into rap. Dj Herc decided to concentrate on his Dj duties and let his friends, Coke La Rock, and Clark Kent (not Dana Danes Dj) handle the microphone duties. The first emcee team was known as Kool Herc and The Herculoids. Rap caught on because it allowed urban youths to express themselves. It was an art form that was accessible to anyone. There were no lessons, no rules but plenty of possibilities. The ultimate goal of rapping was at first to be def (good), and seen so by peers. Rappers began to appear as urban heroes, synonymous with black athletes, and comedians.

Hip-Hop is a culture in which rap sprung from. The essence of Hip-Hop culture initially included four elements: Graffiti, Break-dancing, Dj-ing (cutting and scratching) and Emceeing (rapping). Hip-Hop is a lifestyle, which has its own language, style of dress, music, mind set, all of which continues to evolve.

Hip-Hop filled a void that black radio left in the 70's. Black radio was a cultural preserver and a primary source of information,

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