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Hip-Hop Turns 52: Still Breaking Beats and Expectations
Fifty-two years ago this month, a community room at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx became ground zero for a cultural takeover. DJ Kool Herc, armed with two turntables and a knack for stretching funk breaks until the walls sweated, gave dancers more room to shine — and unknowingly set off a chain reaction that would ripple across the planet. What started as a neighborhood party became the blueprint for an art form that would outlive every prediction that it was “just a fad.” Back then, few could imagine that a sound born from borrowed records and block parties would grow into the dominant cultural force of the 21st century.