If Words Could Speak: A Musical History of Hip-Hop's Golden Age

The Golden Age of hip-hop is a time period that refers to any number of years from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, in which the music was creatively transformed by a number of talented musicians. Specifically, a handful of recording artists working in the New York Metropolitan area significantly developed the lyrical part of the art form in the years between 1983 and 1988 , creating poetic innovations that allowed for a much greater range of expression. That is, these MC's used new types of musical phrases, rhythms, and rhymes to strengthen, add to, and transform the meaning of their words. In so doing, they helped to firmly establish both hip-hop's place in mainstream culture and the MC's role as its central artistic voice.