Google’s New Doodle Celebrates the 44th Anniversary of Hip-Hop

Forty-four years ago today (Aug. 11), Jamaican American DJ Kool Herc pulled out his turntables and deejayed a Bronx party for the ages, playing an extended cut of the percussion-heavy portions of James Brown's Sex Machine album while shouting instructions to dancing party-goers. This moment is what historians recognize as the birth of hip-hop.

To celebrate the occasion, YouTube Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen and the legendary Fab 5 Freddy teamed with the good folks at Google to create the company's first ever hip-hop Doodle. Now, when you visit the Google main page, you're greeted with a colorful and interactive doodle that allows you to scratch popular R&B/soul records, much like Herc did when he threw his legendary block party 44 years ago.

In the interactive doodle, you can hear Fab 5 Freddy's voice in the intro and a voice barking out various minor congratulations as you learn to scratch the records after peeping the tutorial. Google really went all out.

Before revealing it earlier today, Google previewed the doodle for hip-hop legends like DJ Red Alert, Grand Wizzard Theodore, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Roxanne Shante, and others. The newest edition to Google's celebratory doodles will be live on Google domains until Saturday (Aug. 12). Check it out on Google's homepage and read what Lyor Cohen had to say about the process.

Happy birthday, hip-hop!

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