Sound manipulation is the foundation of all musical forms. The individual control of audible vibrations is what allows musicians to create aurally aesthetic sounds. As Paul D. Miller (a.k.a DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid) writes, "When Thomas Edison first recorded the human voice onto a tin foil roll singing Mary Had a Little Lamb, on December 6, 1877, history changed. It became malleable in a form never before seen on this planet. Experiences of events, and the moment-events themselves could be captured, edited, sequenced, and distributed. What Edison did was take the voice and reduce it to its basic component: sound. This is what the DJ in hip-hop does when he combines and reanimates bits and pieces of old recorded history to create entirely new compositions. The music represents a future without a past."

Hip-hop as a subculture started in the early 70s in New York City with graffiti artists and breakdancers. Breakdancers were b-boy crews who would wait for the break of a song (when the rhythm and the beat were at their utmost urgency) to bust their gyrating dance moves. Originally DJs were just that, Disc Jockeys. They spun records at parties for people to dance to. Using two turntables and a mixing board, so the jams never stopped, the DJ kept the beats pumping. MCs would take turns on the mic, primarily acting as cheer leaders for the party.

The increasing presence of B-boys caused one of the more industrious DJs (Grandmaster Flash) to start repeating the break of a record over and over, using two copies of the same record, and switching back and forth from one turntable to the other. This heightened the immediate groove and provided a soundtrack for the B-boys to dance to and for the MCs to rap over. All of these things together (Graffiti, Breaking, Rapping, and DJing) provide the genesis and the core of hip-hop as a culture and a lifestyle.