Is it a tight rhyme over a sick beat? Is it breakdancers in the Bronx with gravity-defying dance moves? Or is it, rather, the revolutionary technique developed by block-party DJs for extending the rhythmic underpinnings — or "break"— of a song? The truth is that hip-hop is all of these things — and then some. 

“Hip-hop is a design remix where an aesthetic of ‘cool’ intersects with creative self-expression for several purposes,” explains Joycelyn Wilson, assistant professor of Black media studies in Georgia Tech’s School of Literature, Media, and Communication.

Wilson is an educational anthropologist with a background in mathematics. Her research interests include hip-hop studies and digital media, with an emphasis on hip-hop’s impact on the American South. She is particularly interested in interrogating, complicating, and contextualizing hip-hop’s commonly received origin story.

Read the full story on the Georgia Tech News website.