One could argue that 1998's Belly is the first fully "hip-hop" movie (besides Wild Style in the '80s). Directed by Hype ...
On Dec. 1, 1950, Sam Cooke joined the gospel group The Soul Stirrers. In 1956, the Leonard Bernstein (BURN'-styn) musical "Candide," based on the story by Voltaire, opened on Broadway.