Pioneers of the rap/hip hop genre

Rap music first started on the streets of the bronx in new york, the music origanally stemmed from American music and poetry, the poetry at the time had a significant effect on starting the civil-rights movement in America, the poetry eventually evolved into music and became increasingly popular with the rise of block parties in which a whole community would be involve, Dj's at block parties would isolate the percusion breaks of popular soul and funk songs and the rap artist (or MC) would rap over the beat.  In the 1990's rappers such as Tupac Shakur (who is also considered to be one of the greatest rappers who ever lived) and his rival Biggie Smalls (Notorious B.I.G) helped to propell the expansion of rap music around the world with hits like "Dear mama" and "Juicy". Eventually in europe hip hop started to evolve from underground music into the mainstream audiences. In Europe rap music was the domain of ethnic internationals and immigrants. In britain rap music was evolve into a sub-genre called grime. Grime started on the streets of east London and for a number of years was exclusivley produced in London by artists known as Wiley and Dizzie Rascal who have now brought grime more into the mainstream and have now manageded to spread grime to America and have started collabarating with American rappers.