Today marks the 50th anniversary of hip hop.
50 years of MPCs, vinyl shopping, sample chopping, FL grids, Amen breaks, and more. Without the beat makers, the crate diggers, and the many producers instrumental to hip hop’s legacy, there would be no Splice.
To celebrate this historic moment, Splice is amplifying the voices that comprise the past and future of hip hop production. Over the coming days and weeks, we’ll be asking the next generation of hip hop creators to pay homage to their roots with an original track harking back to an iconic era in hip hop production—stay tuned on our Instagram and Twitter for more.
How is hip hop 50 years old?
While it might seem impossible to identify a single day as the beginning of such a massive movement, many have cited the legendary party hosted on August 11, 1973 by Cindy Campbell and her brother Clive (a.k.a. DJ Kool Herc) as the birthplace of hip hop. Kool Herc loaded and looped break beats using two turntables, so the music (and by extension, the dancing) never stopped—this is seen as the initial spark that countless DJs, MCs, musicians, and producers innovated upon over subsequent decades.
Get the free Collection of sounds
Join us in celebrating the 50th anniversary with our free From Vinyl Scratch to Sample Pack Collection, which features 50 zero-credit loops and one-shots that provide a taste of the expansive array of iconic sounds that mark hip hop. We hope you’ll use it to create something new.
Here’s to 50 years of hip hop, and many, many more to come.
Dive into curated sounds that celebrate hip hop’s rich history:
August 11, 2023
