The Birth of Hip Hop and Its Early Struggles

In the early 1980s, hip hop music faced significant challenges in gaining mainstream recognition, with artists like Run DMC struggling to get their music played on the radio. Despite its innovative sound and cultural relevance, hip hop was often dismissed, with many perceiving it as outside the realm of music itself. The introduction of tracks like 'The Message' by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five marked a pivotal moment in music history, highlighting the genre's raw energy and storytelling, but it was still largely an underground phenomenon. This context illustrates just how groundbreaking and transformative the collaboration between traditional rock and emerging hip hop artists would become later on.