Happy 50th birthday, hip-hop! You gave millions without a voice a way to speak the truth | Nels Abbey

The movement born at a New York block party in 1973 is now global, an instrument for learning and a weapon for protest

On 11 August 1973, Clive Campbell (popularly known as Kool Herc), an 18-year-old DJ, hosted a party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx. Unbeknownst to the men and women dancing the night away, they were witnessing the birth of a socioeconomic and political miracle, which came to be known as hip-hop.

If you consume rap music in a fleeting manner - possibly via the gatekeepers of commercially focused entertainment conglomerates - then you may find the point above easy to scoff at. Indeed, you may consider hip-hop a problematic musical phenomenon, typified by bling, boisterousness, violent beefs, exaggerated drug tales and bikini-clad women, all set to banging beats.