Hip-Hop Quiz

Question: Which Brooklyn-born rapper’s 1994 album Illmatic features the songs "N.Y. State of Mind" and "It Ain’t Hard to Tell"?

Answer: Illmatic is widely considered a hip-hop classic and an exemplar of East Coast rap.

Question: Ginuwine’s "Pony," Jay-Z’s "Big Pimpin’," Missy Elliott’s "Work It," and Nelly Furtado’s "Promiscuous" were all produced by whom?

Answer: Timbaland was one of the most commercially successful and artistically innovative hip-hop producers of the 1990s and 2000s.

Question: What was the first rap song to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart?

Answer: "Ice Ice Baby" topped the chart for a single week in 1990.

Question: Sir Mix-A-Lot’s 1992 hit "Baby Got Back" was sampled in a 2014 song by which female rapper?

Answer: Like the song it samples, Minaj’s "Anaconda" celebrates female backsides.

Question: The title of the worldwide hit "Gangnam Style" (2012) refers to a neighborhood in which city?

Answer: Gangnam is a fashionable district in the South Korean capital of Seoul, where rapper (and viral-video star) PSY grew up.

Question: Run-D.M.C. collaborated with rock musicians Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, of Aerosmith, on a rap remake of which of their band’s songs?

Answer: The Run-D.M.C. version (1986) was one of the first hits for superstar producer Rick Rubin.

Question: Which singer has been called the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul?

Answer: Blige’s debut album What’s the 411? (1992) featured a uniquely gritty take on rhythm and blues.

Question: The original "four elements" of hip-hop culture consist of rapping, deejaying, break dancing (or "B-boying"), and what else?

Answer: These cornerstones were identified by Afrika Bambaataa, who popularized the term "hip-hop" in the mid-1970s.

Question: What is the birth name of the rapper and actor familiarly known as Ice Cube?

Answer: Broadus, Morrow, and Wallace are better known as Snoop Dogg, Ice-T, and the Notorious B.I.G., respectively.

Question: Chuck D of Public Enemy famously referred to rap as "the black" what?

Answer: Through the metaphor, Chuck D emphasized the communicative power of hip-hop within African American communities.