Hey, I'm Aisha Harris, co-host of NPR's Popculture Happy Hour, and I'm filling in for Aisha

Roscoe, who's on vacation this week.

So over here at NPR, we're celebrating the 50-year anniversary of hip-hop with a lot

of special coverage.

And today, on the Sunday story, we're featuring an extra special episode of Popculture Happy

Hour.

That's all about hip-hop.

Hip-hop is, of course, a global phenomenon, but it's also deeply personal.

We decided to reach out to some NPR colleagues and a few hip-hop stars and ask them, what's

the hip-hop verse that changed your life?

The one that you still remember all these years later.

And we got some pretty amazing answers, from code switch to louder than a riot, to the

one in only big freedom.

Let's hear what they had to say.

And just a heads up, this episode has some explicit language.

I'm Sidney Madden, one of the co-hosts of louder than a riot podcast.

So many hip-hop songs, so many hip-hop verses have changed my life, but I went right back

to college, and I went right back to Section 80.

This is Kendrick Lamar's debut album before his major, The Mixed Tape Off TDE.

So Section 80 is definitely the album that sparked something in me, and on Section 80, high

power is really the song that turned me on and activated me to what it means to struggle

with all these complicated emotions as a black person living in America.

...