Why Google tapped Fab 5 Freddy for its hip-hop doodle

When you arrived at the Google homepage today (Aug. 11), you probably saw the Google doodle that commemorated the 44th anniversary of the "break" that birthed hip-hop culture.

The event took place at a party on Aug. 11, 1973, at 1520 Sedgwick Ave. in the Bronx in New York City, when Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc (born Clive Campbell) played records at a party organized by his sister Cindy.

Herc played only the rhythmic instrumental sections known as "breaks" instead of the whole record, accompanied by his friend Coke La Rock on the mic. In the process, Herc invented hip-hop.

The Google doodle presents a set of tutorials where visitors to the website can attempt to mix and scratch records on turntables from a virtual vinyl crate emulating the actions that Kool Herc initiated 44 years ago today, forming the bedrock of one of the most influential and popular music genres in the world today.

Google invited Fab 5 Freddy to introduce its commemorative animated video, and while he's known as the former host of Yo! MTV Raps, he's also the perfect host for the Google doodle because he was present at many critical events in hip-hop history that are too numerous to mention, but here are a few:

The stylish and dapper Fab 5 Freddy, born Fred Brathwaite, is a social connector whose eclectic network was a bridge to the punk and progressive art scenes in the nascent days of hip-hop culture in the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy was featured in the 1983 film Wild Style (he was also an associate producer). In the following clip from the film, he watches as hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash performs in a kitchen.

Fab 5 Freddy also counted celebrated artists like Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat among his friends. Along with Basquiat he appeared in Blondie's video "Rapture" in which lead singer Debbie Harry gives him a shout out: "Fab 5 Freddy says everybody's fly...." The song represents the merging of the scenes in which Fab 5 Freddy operated.

Fab 5 Freddy went on to host Yo! MTV Raps, the breakthrough show that truly brought hip-hop to mainstream America. Here's his interview with a yet-to-be famous Tupac Shakur on the set of his 1992 film Juice.

Fab 5 Freddy would also go on to direct "One Love," the video from Nas' classic hip-hop album Illmatic.

Last year, Fab 5 Freddy even showed up in the pivotal fight scene in the series finale of the first season of Netflix's Luke Cage.

A true hip-hop pioneer, Fab 5 Freddy may even get his own Google doodle one day.