Hip-Hop Day: 10 Songs That Surprisingly Pioneered Rap

It’s a day that’s since become a thing of legends: on August 11, 1973, the seven-hour back to school jam thrown by DJ Kool Herc of The Bronx would lead to the birth of a genre that has become a universal culture of sound across the world.

Over 50 years later, hip-hop has grown into a dominating force in the industry while also being a source for Black musicians specifically to express their artistic creativity though the elements of emceeing, DJing, breaking, graffiti art and street knowledge.

RELATED: 25 Hip-Hop Songs That Represent Black History

For most students of the art form also known as rap, its origin point often leads back to the releases of “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang in September 1979 and the 1980 self-titled album by Kurtis Blow that produced hits “Christmas Rappin'” and more notably “The Breaks.” The former song brought hip-hop into the Top 40 on Billboard for the first time, while Kurtis Blow proved to be the first marketable solo rap star with the skills to go Gold. With their success saw the introduction of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Run-DMC, Kool Moe Dee and LL Cool J amongst others. As time went on, hip-hop only got bigger as each star of the genre kept pushing the needle of success further. From Public Enemy and KRS-One to Big Daddy Kane and De La Soul, the golden years of rap paved way for a cultural shift that led to regional stars from state to state, genre fusion from rock to R&B and ultimately a status as the most lucrative genre in music.

Surprisingly enough, elements of hip-hop existed in music well before DJ Kool Herc’s legendary party in 1973 that led to its commercial breakthrough in 1979. Disco, funk, jazz and soul were the predecessors of rap, each including a piece that would later come together to shape those first recordings. Elements of jive talking, spoken word poetry, talking blues, speak-singing and record-scratching were some of the earliest examples of what would eventually become known as hip-hop.

To commemorate the birth of hip-hop, we put together a list of songs you might not know helped to shape the genre into what it is today:

The Jubalaires – “Noah” (1946)

The melodic delivery in this classic gospel song is widely recognized to be the earliest example of rapping.

Muhammad Ali/Cassius Clay – “Round 1: I Am The Greatest” (1963)

The boastful energy of Ali paired with his penchant for poetry is the blueprint for what a typical rap record sounds like today.

Pigmeat Markham – “Here Comes The Judge” (1968)

Although a comedian, Pigmeat Markham didn’t play any games with his surprising display of rhyming on beat.

U-Roy and Peter Tosh – “(Earth’s) Rightful Ruler” (1969)

Talking records like this reggae chune paved way for the art of freestyling.

King Stitt & The Dynamites – “Fire Corner” (1969)

The aggressive confidence of King Stitt is easy to correlate with the energy of classic rap records.

Gil Scott-Heron – “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (1971)

From its core theme to the powerful words of wisdom by Gil Scott-Heron himself, hip-hop owes a gratitude to the influential nature of this record.

James Brown – “Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing” (1972)

Nobody jived quite like The Godfather of Soul, and this song was just one of many by James Brown that gave rap music its foundation.

Jalal Mansur Nuriddin/Lightnin’ Rod – Hustler’s Convention (EP) [1973]

The intricate storytelling on this influential EP paved way for the same praise later given to the likes of The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar to name a few.

Chic – “Good Times” (1979)

While “Rapper’s Delight” may have kicked things off, we’d be nowhere without the original song it sampled.

The Fatback Band – “King Tim III (Personality Jock)” [1979]

History may give the success of hip-hop to “Rapper’s Delight,” but The Fatback Band gets the chronological credit for dropping just a few months earlier.