Hip-hop has its roots in the African traditions of percussion and oral storytelling. Its modern origins, however, can be found in New York City’s crime-ridden South Bronx in the early 1970s. Fed up with the insipid disco of the times, youth who were short on money but rich in ingenuity created a new, dynamic art form: verbally competing and chronicling life in the ghetto by rapping poetry over a beat.

嘻哈文化起源于非洲传统的打击乐和口述故事。然而，现代嘻哈则是70年代初期来源于纽约市犯罪行为猖獗的南布朗克斯区。那些口袋空空却富于创新的年轻人，厌倦了当时流行的乏味的迪斯科音乐，便创造出了一种新的动感十足的艺术形式：通过配合节奏念词的方式，在言辞上相互较量，并且记录了贫民区的生活。

(短文节选,本篇始于：所向披靡嘻哈风)