Q 01/05

Which founding father of hip hop pioneered the breakbeat on two turntables?

A) Grandmaster Flash

B) DJ Kool Herc

C) Afrika Bambaataa

D) Kurtis Blow

Answer · why

B) DJ Kool Herc

DJ Kool Herc saw that dancers saved their best moves for a record's short drum break, so he switched between two turntables to keep the break going, a...

Q 02/05

Which album, N.W.A's debut, is credited with accelerating the rise of hardcore gangsta rap?

A) The Chronic

B) Straight Outta Compton

C) Fear of a Black Planet

D) All Eyez on Me

Answer · why

B) Straight Outta Compton

Straight Outta Compton was N.W.A's debut studio album; its most notorious track drew a warning letter from the FBI, which only raised the group's prof...

Q 03/05

Which rap subgenre of the 1980s put political activism at the centre of its lyrics?

A) Conscious Hip Hop

B) Gangsta Rap

C) Miami Bass

D) New Jack Swing

Answer · why

A) Conscious Hip Hop

Conscious hip hop took its cue from 'The Message', the 1982 single that traded party rhymes for a report on inner-city poverty; Public Enemy later bui...

Q 04/05

Which New York borough is regarded as the birthplace of hip hop?

A) Brooklyn

B) Queens

C) Manhattan

D) The Bronx

Answer · why

D) The Bronx

The Bronx owes the title to one night: a party on 11 August 1973 in the recreation room of an apartment block at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, organised by th...

Q 05/05

Which East Coast rapper debuted in 1994 with the acclaimed 'Illmatic'?

A) Rakim

B) Jay-Z

C) Nas

D) Big L

Answer · why

C) Nas

Nas released Illmatic on 19 April 1994, aged 20; the Queensbridge rapper's debut sold slowly at first but was quickly hailed as a lyrical landmark and...