How Boston quietly triumphed as a seminal rap city
From beginnings so humble that local labels left their addresses off the liner notes, New York's northeast neighbor grew into a sister city, guiding taste and incubating talent.
As it celebrates its 50th birthday, we are mapping hip-hop's story on a local level, with more than a dozen city-specific histories of the music and culture. Click here to see the entire list.
Hip-hop couldn't stay in the Bronx for long. After spreading to the other boroughs of New York City, the culture permeated the tri-state area, crept into the bordering regions of Pennsylvania and, eventually, arrived in Massachusetts. By 1979, tapes of jams and famous battles were already circulating throughout Boston. The city was most known at the time for its Boston
