The beginnings of hip hop music/rap can be traced back to the Bronx, NY in the 1960s and 1970s where wall graffiti started to gain popularity with the prevalence of street gangs. The musical style rap was the result of multiple influences including the Jamaican style of music called "toasting" and several different styles of Deejaying. DJ styles such as scratching (invented by a DJ named Theodor) and "punch phasing." rap can be defined as a style of music where the lyrics are half spoken, half sung in short phrases accompanied by a musical beat in the background. The term "hip hop" encompasses all of these elements, including rap, DJing, MCing, break dancing and graffiti.http://people.artcenter.edu/~acheng1/design_workshop/01.28.03/rap_evolution.pdf
