On this day in 1973, at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, 18-year-old DJ Kool Herc (1955-) set up two turntables and launched a back-to-school party that changed the world. With his sister Cindy organizing the event and Herc extending funk breakbeats longer than anyone had before, hip-hop was born. A fresh voice, a beat-driven revolution, a culture in the making.

The party had rhythm, power, and soul. Young people danced to the extended “breaks” — and a new style of movement emerged: breakdancing. MCs rhymed over the beat. The room pulsed with joy, invention, and neighborhood pride.

“Hip-hop is the voice of this generation,” Herc said.

This single party lit the fuse for what would become a global movement: not just music, but a full cultural expression — DJing, rapping, breakdancing, graffiti — each a voice, each a vision. What began as a response to hardship became a celebration of survival, style, and voice.

Hip-hop carried truth from block to block, borough to borough — and eventually around the globe. “We were creating something out of nothing,” Herc once said. “Giving the people what they needed: a way to be seen.”

Today, hip-hop is everywhere, echoing in art, politics, poetry, and protest. But it started with a beat, a Bronx party, and a dream that the mic belongs to everyone, and every voice matters.