Hip-Hop Day is celebrated every August 11 in the United States. Hip-hop has progressed from a street corner to one of the most important musical genres and cultural impacts in the world. Hip-hop, like any other style of music, has its roots in other forms, and its evolution was shaped by many different artists — but there’s a case to be made that it came to life precisely on August 11, 1973, on a birthday celebration in the recreation room of an apartment building in New York City’s west Bronx by D.J. Kool Herc, hip-hop’s founding father.