Iconic Hip-Hop Boomers

Iconic Hip-Hop Boomers

While Generation X could arguably claim hip-hop music, this explosive genre and culture truly dates back to 1973. As part of this year’s African American Music Appreciation Month in June, AARP toasts railblazing boomers who paved the way for today’s hip-hop stars.

Russell Simmons, 59

When DJ Kool Herc spun records using two turntables at his sister’s back-to-school party in a Sedgwick Avenue recreation room in the Bronx on Aug. 11, 1973, he unknowingly gave birth to hip-hop. Considered the founder of hip-hop, he also invented “the break” technique in which deejays cue up records to the rhythmic breakdown of a song and extend this mostly instrumental and percussion section by playing back and forth between the two turntables. 

DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell), 62

Before becoming one of today’s most distinguished R&B singers and songwriters, Stone was known as Angie B., one of the members of the Sequence, a rap trio that broke gender barriers as the first female hip-hop group. The Sequence had a 1980 hit with the single “Funk You Up.”

Kurtis Blow (Kurt Walker), 57

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Angie Stone (Angela Laverne Brown), 55

As the front man for Public Enemy, Chuck D. helped usher in a new wave of socially conscious rap in the mid-1980s. With its strong black nationalist rhetoric, the group delivered an aggressive, defiantly political aesthetic that, nevertheless, burst onto the mainstream despite some negative criticism. Public Enemy albums such as It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Fear of a Black Planet remain touchstone hip-hop classics.

Ice-T (Tracy Marrow), 59

Although the Fatback Band released “King Tim III,” a disco-funk classic that featured rapping, in March 1979, a few months before the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” hit the airwaves, it’s the latter that’s considered the first bona fide “hip-hop” song to be recorded and reach the Top 40. From Englewood, N.J., the Sugarhill Gang --   Guy 'Master Gee' O'Brien (52) (left), Henry 'Big Bank' Jackson (58) (center), and Michael 'Wonder Mike' Wright (57) (right) -- is widely responsible for popularizing rap music beyond its New York City origins.

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Rick Rubin (Frederick Jay Rubin), 51

While Generation X could arguably claim hip-hop music, this explosive genre and culture truly dates back to 1973. As part of this year’s African American Music Appreciation Month in June, AARP toasts railblazing boomers who paved the way for today’s hip-hop stars.

Chuck D. (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour), 56

While Generation X could arguably claim hip-hop music, this explosive genre and culture truly dates back to 1973. As part of this year’s African American Music Appreciation Month in June, AARP toasts railblazing boomers who paved the way for today’s hip-hop stars.

Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Saddler), 59

While Generation X could arguably claim hip-hop music, this explosive genre and culture truly dates back to 1973. As part of this year’s African American Music Appreciation Month in June, AARP toasts railblazing boomers who paved the way for today’s hip-hop stars.

The Sugarhill Gang

While Generation X could arguably claim hip-hop music, this explosive genre and culture truly dates back to 1973. As part of this year’s African American Music Appreciation Month in June, AARP toasts railblazing boomers who paved the way for today’s hip-hop stars.

Fab 5 Freddy (Fred Brathwaite), 57

While Generation X could arguably claim hip-hop music, this explosive genre and culture truly dates back to 1973. As part of this year’s African American Music Appreciation Month in June, AARP toasts railblazing boomers who paved the way for today’s hip-hop stars.

Boomers@50+

While Generation X could arguably claim hip-hop music, this explosive genre and culture truly dates back to 1973. As part of this year’s African American Music Appreciation Month in June, AARP toasts railblazing boomers who paved the way for today’s hip-hop stars.