n [ U ]
1. a type of modern music consisting of rap with an electronic backing, often made by combining and repeating short pieces of recorded music. It was started in the late 1970s by African-American DJs (= people who introduce and play recorded music in clubs) in New York.
2. the popular culture that developed among young African Americans in the US in the late 1970s. It is associated mainly with rap music, as well as with ‘break-dancing’ (= fast dancing on the hands and feet, popular especially in the early 1980s), graffiti art (= decorative painting on the walls of buildings, etc) and fashion clothing.