What does “old school” mean?

In hip-hop, the first era of rap and DJing, and by extension anything traditional or from the early days.

Entry · catalog no. 9505

old school

/ /ˌoʊld ˈskuːl/ /OHLD SKOOL

adj · New York City (the Bronx) · 1980s

✓ Verified

Belonging to hip-hop's first era, roughly the 1970s to the early 1980s, before drum-machine hardcore rap, or more broadly traditional and from the early days. Its counterpart is "new school."

“He spins pure old school: Bronx block party breaks and nothing else.”

Origin & Attribution

A label applied in hindsight. After Run-DMC's 1983 records, rap before them began to be called old school; Peter Shapiro's Rough Guide to Hip Hop describes that break, and Oliver Wang (LA Weekly, 8 March 2000) agrees. Chuck D's "Leader of the New School" (1988) shows the pairing in use. The general phrase "old school" is older than hip-hop; the hip-hop sense comes from Black and Latino youth in New York. No person is credited with coining it.

1983

Run-DMC's first records mark a break after which earlier rap is called old school.

1988

Chuck D uses "new school" in the song "Leader of the New School."

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

Nationwide / diaspora

New York City (the Bronx) · 1980s

Spoken by

Hip-hop DJs, MCs and fans, especially Black and Latino New Yorkers

$OLDSCHThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Steady

5 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

55/100

peak cultural energy

Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1983

in the culture

Recorded here

2026

point of first record

Mainstream crossover

1988

search interest spikes

Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.

Hear it spoken

By region — how it actually sounds

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Atlanta, GA

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Memphis, TN

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Citations & Sources

■

Peter Shapiro, The Rough Guide to Hip Hop, p. 327

book, 2005

■

Oliver Wang, LA Weekly, 8 March 2000

news, 2000

■

Wikipedia, 'Old-school hip hop' and 'New-school hip-hop'

reference, 2026

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