Many histories of hip hop have been written since the first b-boy topped his first "top rock," and while almost each has its own claim as to who was the first, who was the best and who made the old sound new, most agree on a few pivotal figures without which hip hop would never have formed. For example, after paying due homage to West African "griots" (poets and praise singers) who use music to accompany their epic tales, and drawing direct ancestral lines from them to late '60s and early '70s revolutionary African-American poets,, every history of the music worth its salt describes Jamaicanborn, Bronx-based DJ Kool Herc as "the godfather of hip hop."

Break dancing, known more commonly as "Breaking" or "B-boying," is one of the pillars of hip hop culture. It originated on the streets of New York in the 1970s and '80s, mainly among African-American and Puerto Rican youth but has since spread worldwide. "B-boys" and "b-girls" took to street corners to demonstrate their dancing, using cardboard at their dance floor and the city as their arena.