LL Cool J appearing in a video for his hit "Mama Said Knock You Out"
	VIDEO
Watch the full story Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K
	DO YOU KNOW...
Who was the first female rapper?

May 19, 2000
Web posted at: 4:42 p.m. EST (2042 GMT)

(CNN) --When Lovebug Starski declared, "Hip-hop, ya don't stop" for the first time, no one could be blamed for assuming that the musical genre called "rap" would be nothing more than a passing sound.

But now, 25 years after he uttered that phrase, rap's bigger than ever. Worldwide, it's even outsold country music to become the United States' No. 1 sound export.

Dominating the world's boom boxes and radios never was a goal of original hip-hoppers, according to pioneer artist Grandmaster Flash, whose early hit "The Message" still pops up on hip-hop compilation albums.

"(A)ll we hoped was that people on the Eastern seaboard would get a listen to this, and like it," he told WorldBeat Correspondent Bruno Del Granado. "And it's now become worldwide."

At the core of hip-hop's international growth was Russell "Rush" Simmons, who discovered some of hip-hop's earliest superstars -- Kurtis Blow, the Beastie Boys and his brother Joseph's own rap group, Run-D.M.C., among others.

Because hip-hop was so new in the early 1980s, Simmons had few business models to follow. Instead, he trusted his instincts, bringing artists to his company, Rush Management, and his label, Def Jam.

"The idea was to get artists who really moved you, who gave you goose bumps," Simmons said. "There wasn't any formula for these early artists, and today there still is not. It's just really what was relevant and what felt good. That was the criteria."

His instincts proved golden. Run-DMC was the first hip-hop super group, and the Beastie Boys continue to release some of today's most critically and commercially lauded hip-hop-influenced music. Simmons, meanwhile, owns a highly successful media conglomerate that still includes Rush Management and Def Jam.

Check out this week's WorldBeat to learn more about the rise of hip-hop, from the late 1970s through today.

CNN Interactive WorldBeat Writer Sarah Raskin contributed to this report.