Hip-Hop Evolution

Seasons

2016

Canada

8.4

TV-MA

MC and journalist Shad Kabango meets with Hip-Hop's biggest stars to retrace how Hip-Hop became the world's most popular music, but realizes that Hip-Hop's true legacy is something much more profound.

Episode List

S1 • E1

The Foundation

Bronx-based DJs set Hip-Hop's sonic foundations. MCs, inspired by African American oral traditions, create the modern template for rap music, culminating with the emergence of Hip-Hop's first crew, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

S1 • E2

The Underground to the Mainstream

Hip-Hop crews in the Bronx and Harlem begin to form around the DJs, but these pioneering groups never record any music. It would take R&B veterans to see the genre's commercial potential and create Hip-Hop's first hit, "Rapper's Delight."

S1 • E3

The New Guard

Run-DMC ushers in a new era of Hip-Hop. Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin build Hip-Hop's first empire, Def Jam. An unknown producer finds a new way to make beats and launches Hip-Hop's Golden Age, culminating in the epic fury of Public Enemy.

S1 • E4

The Birth of Gangsta Rap

Ice-T uses Hip-Hop to reflect the violence of L.A. and inspires a new form of Hip-Hop: Gangsta Rap. N.W.A's first album, Straight Outta Compton, shocks America. Dr. Dre makes The Chronic, and creates Hip-Hop's first hardcore pop record.