A few of old-school hip-hop's finest. Photo illustration by Ellie Skrzat for Slate. Photos by Vince Bucci/Getty Images, Stringer PN/Reuters, Blake Sell/Reuters, and Mario Anzuoni/Reuters. This summer ...

Beastie Boys and Run-DMC, Public Enemy and Salt n Pepa (Credit: Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images, Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, Michael Putland/Getty Images) In August 1973, the ...

T-shirts printed the gorgeous scowl of Tupac Shakur were ubiquitous when I was in middle school, but the only one I’ve ever wanted popped up about a decade and a half after his passing. It features a ...

Hip-hop might have been birthed in the ‘80s; however it wasn't until the ‘90s when the genre started to take off. It was an era of legends like Nas, the Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, and more who earned ...

This article has been handpicked from the Okayplayer editorial archives and included in our Hip Hop 50 collection as a noteworthy inclusion to the genre's rich and diverse narrative. The article has ...

In the '80s, hip-hop hit the mainstream, and it's stayed there in the decades since. When hip-hop emerged, it had an urgency and power that set it apart from the pop that dominated the charts, but ...

On August 11, 1973, hip-hop was born, changing music and popular culture forever. But in each decade since, the genre has been distinct, with its own style, stars and sounds. In honor of hip-hop’s ...

What started out as a family tradition turned into a priority when Robert Gunn, owner of ILLY’S Fire Pizza, lost his job working for a telephone company. Robert owns the ‘80s-’90s hip hop-themed pizza ...

Imagine getting a birthday invitation to dress like rappers in 2025. What exactly do you even wear? Skinny jeans? The 50-plus ...

It’s no secret that the world of rap music has endured more than its fair share of tragedy over the years. Like the psychedelic rockers in the late 60s or the grunge stars in the mid-90s, rap has lost ...

In August 1973, the Jamaican-born Clive “DJ Kool Herc” Campbell held his first block party in the Bronx, bringing the Jamaican sound system culture to America and inadvertently providing the first ...