Hip Hop
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8correct to beat the crowd
This rap trivia quiz runs the whole history of hip hop in 196 free questions with answers: the Bronx block parties of the 1970s, Run-DMC and Public Enemy, the golden age, the East Coast versus West Coast feud, and the Atlanta trap sound that took over the 2010s. Roughly a third of it is 90s rap trivia, so fans of Illmatic, The Chronic, Doggystyle, Ready to Die and Enter the Wu-Tang will find plenty to argue about. Questions start easy enough for casual listeners and climb to the real names, label histories and video directors that only heads know. Every answer has been checked against a reliable source and each question shows its citation after you answer, so you can settle the debate on the spot. Play it solo or use it as a ready-made rap round for a trivia night.
30 of 196 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which DJ turned the Black Spades street gang into the Universal Zulu Nation?
Afrika Bambaataa
Afrika Bambaataa had risen to a commanding rank in the Black Spades; he named his new organisation after the 1964 film Zulu and renamed himself after a Zulu chief.
Q 02Which Run-D.M.C. album contains 'Walk This Way' and 'It's Tricky'?
Raising Hell
Raising Hell's remake of 'Walk This Way' revived Aerosmith too: the rock band's own comeback album had underperformed a year earlier, and the duet put them back in the limelight.
Q 03Keith Cowboy of the Furious Five is credited with coining 'hip hop' while teasing a friend who had just joined what?
The Army
The Army's marching cadence is what Cowboy was mimicking when he scatted 'hip, hop, hip, hop' at his friend; he then worked the chant into his stage routine.
Q 04Trap music takes its name from Southern slang for what kind of place?
A drug house
A drug house is the 'trap' of Southern slang; the name is said to cast the drug trade as a trap that is hard to get out of.
Q 05Besides DJing, MCing, breakdancing and graffiti, what is sometimes named as hip hop culture's 'fifth element'?
Knowledge
Knowledge of self is sometimes added to the four as a fifth element, particularly by socially conscious artists and scholars who see hip hop as a way to shape values and raise consciousness.
Q 06Which New York City borough do the Wu-Tang Clan call home and nickname 'Shaolin'?
Staten Island
Staten Island is 'Shaolin' in the Wu-Tang Clan's slang; the group took its own name from the kung fu film Shaolin and Wu Tang.
Q 07What song, released in 1979, is often credited with being the first commercially successful rap single?
"Rapper's Delight"
"Rapper's Delight" was recorded in a single take and ran to about 15 minutes; the Fatback Band's 'King Tim III' beat it to release that year, but only as a B-side.
Q 08Which DJ is credited with pioneering the breakbeat technique that underpins hip hop?
DJ Kool Herc
DJ Kool Herc saw that dancers saved their best moves for a record's drum break, so he switched between two copies to keep the break going, a trick he called the Merry-Go-Round.
Q 09Which acclaimed 1994 debut album by Nas is a cornerstone of East Coast hip hop?
Illmatic
Illmatic collects rhymes Nas began writing at 16 about life in the Queensbridge housing projects; he was 20 by the time it came out.
Q 10What was the title of Missy Elliott's debut album, released in 1997?
Supa Dupa Fly
Supa Dupa Fly was produced entirely by Timbaland and came out on Goldmind, the label Elektra let Missy Elliott set up in 1996, before she had released a solo record.
Q 11Which group became the second hip hop act in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
Run-DMC
Run-DMC were inducted in 2009, six years after Jam Master Jay was shot dead at a Queens recording studio; Eminem gave the induction speech for the two surviving members.
Q 12Tupac was shot in 1996 after watching which boxer's fight?
Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson knocked out Bruce Seldon in under two minutes at the MGM Grand; Tupac was shot at a red light later that night and died six days later, aged 25.
Q 13Which 2003 Jay-Z release was promoted as his farewell before retirement?
The Black Album
The Black Album was billed as Jay-Z's last before retirement, but the farewell lasted three years: he returned to recording with Kingdom Come in 2006.
Q 21Which group, known for its jazz-infused sound, released the album The Low End Theory in 1991?
A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest's album includes 'Scenario', a posse cut that made a star of its 19-year-old guest, Busta Rhymes.
Q 22What record label was founded by Sean 'Diddy' Combs in 1993?
Bad Boy Records
Bad Boy Records was born of a sacking: Combs had risen from intern to executive at Uptown Records, was fired in 1993 and launched his own label that year.
Q 23Which tech company paid $3 billion in 2014 for Beats, the headphone brand co-founded by Dr. Dre?
Apple
Apple got more than headphones: the deal included the Beats Music streaming service, which it replaced with Apple Music a year later.
Q 14Which 1999 album was Eminem's major-label debut?
The Slim Shady LP
The Slim Shady LP came after Eminem placed second at the 1997 Rap Olympics in Los Angeles, which got his demo tape to Dr. Dre, who signed and produced him.
Q 15Which Public Enemy album holds 'Rebel Without a Pause' and 'Don't Believe the Hype'?
It Takes a Nation of Millions
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was made faster on purpose: the group pushed its tempos well past their debut's so the songs would hit harder on stage.
Q 16Which record label was co-founded by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin in 1984?
Def Jam Recordings
Def Jam Recordings was run out of Rick Rubin's New York University dorm room, where he and Simmons sifted the demo tapes that aspiring rappers sent in.
Q 17Which 1996 Tupac double album includes 'How Do U Want It' and 'I Ain't Mad at Cha'?
All Eyez on Me
All Eyez on Me was recorded straight after Tupac left prison on bail in October 1995 and reached shops just four months later, in February 1996.
Q 18What group released the album Straight Outta Compton?
N.W.A
N.W.A's album drew a warning letter from the FBI to its record label over one anti-police track, and the publicity is likely to have boosted sales.
Q 19Which Chicago rapper won an Oscar for co-writing 'Glory' from the film Selma?
Common
Common, born Lonnie Rashid Lynn, first recorded as Common Sense and shortened the name after a band that already used it took him to court.
Q 20Who released My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010?
Kanye West
Kanye West made the album in self-imposed exile in Hawaii, where he retreated after the backlash to his interrupting Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
Q 24Which rapper is often referred to as the 'King of the South'?
T.I.
T.I. has claimed the title 'King of the South' since his first album, a boast that set off a public feud with Houston rapper Lil' Flip, who disputed it.
Q 25The Notorious B.I.G. was killed in which state?
California
California is where he was shot dead, at a red light in Los Angeles in March 1997, shortly after leaving a magazine party and about two weeks before his album Life After Death came out.
Q 26Nas's 'Ether' was aimed at which rapper, whose 'Takeover' had fired first?
Jay-Z
Jay-Z and Nas traded insults on record after 'Takeover' and 'Ether', then made peace; Nas even signed to the label Jay-Z was running as president.
Q 27What smooth, synth-heavy West Coast subgenre did Dr. Dre popularize with The Chronic?
G-funk
G-funk leaned so heavily on George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic records that The Chronic's 'Let Me Ride' lifts its hook from Parliament's 'Mothership Connection'.
Q 28Which Queensbridge duo recorded 'Shook Ones (Part II)' for 1995's The Infamous?
Mobb Deep
Mobb Deep's Havoc and Prodigy met as students at Manhattan's High School of Art and Design; their first album had flopped two years earlier, so The Infamous was a last-ditch comeback.
Q 29Which trio won a 1994 Grammy for 'Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)'?
Digable Planets
Digable Planets never returned to the top 40: 'Rebirth of Slick' was the trio's only such hit, and they broke up in 1995 after one more album.
Q 30Which city is widely considered the birthplace of trap music?
Atlanta
Atlanta produced trap's so-called holy trinity of T.I., Jeezy and Gucci Mane, and T.I.'s 2003 album Trap Muzik put the genre's name on record shelves.