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Black Music Month: Hip-Hop's Groundbreakers and the New Era Leaders

These artists provide dope beats and rhymes regardless of generational gaps.

By isolating and repeating the "breaks," or most danceable parts, of funk records by Mandrill, James Brown, and the Jimmy Castor Bunch, Herc created the prototype for modern-day hip hop. Their early albums, especially It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Fear of a Black Planet, featured dense, cacophonic productions by the Bomb Squad and enduring classics like "Fight the Power." Her mixtapes "Make It Hot" and "Tina Snow" led to chart-topping singles like "Savage" (remixed with Beyoncé) and "WAP" with Cardi B. Megan's debut album Good News peaked at number two on Billboard 200.

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