To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic - Hardcoverby William Jelani Cobb (Author) 2007 Arts Club of Washington's National Award for Arts Writing Finalist SEE ALSO: Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women by T. Denean Sharpley Whiting. An inside look into the beats, lyrics, and flow of hip hop's history With roots that stretch from West Africa through the black pulpit, hip hop emerged in the streets of the South Bronx in the 1970s and has spread to the farthest corners of the earth.