The influence of the belly dance in Hip Hop culture has spread rapidly over the past ten years. Many many artist sing about the belly dance or feature belly dancing in their music videos.

Belly dance is a middle eastern dance that can be traced back 3,000 years B.C.E with images of the dance in the tomb of Mehu at the ancient burial ground of Saqqara in Egypt. Due to some hieroglyphics illustrating pregnant women belly dancing, it is theorized that the dance was a worship of child birth and ritual of fertility with reenactments of giving birth. Abdominal undulations and muscle contractions and spasm characteristics of the dance were to demonstrate the responses of the body when going through labor and delivery. The dance eventually spread to Northern Africa, Rome, Spain and India by Ghawazeealso known as gypsies who traveled and preformed in the streets, temples, and parties for money.

Hip hop is a culture composed of rap music (and later R&B music), language, clothing or style, and dance. The term Hip hop originated from Busy Bee Starski, DJ Hollywood, and DJ Afika Bambaataa in the Bronx county of New York. Rap music is the primary component of Hip hop. The genre began in the 1970's with fast paste Jamaican influenced beats that were usually played at house parties or on the streets of New York. The language, clothing and dancing in hip hop culture complimented the rap music.

The break dance has a key position in the history of hip hop dance. It is the first dance of hip hop. Break dancer were known as B-boys and B-girls who would dance to popular rap songs or beat boxing music on street corners in New York. Break dancing is an acrobatic dance consisting of gliding, ticking, breaking, popping and locking of the joints.

Break dancing paved the way for many dances in the hip hop culture. Artist such as Aaliyah introduced belly dancing to the hip hop culture. Aaliyah was the first to introduce belly dancing to hip hop behind the scenes of her I Care 4 U DVD and Rock the Boat music video. She also was the first to rename the dance hip rolling. Soon after her death hip rolling spread fast in hip hop culture and other artist began mentioning or featuring the dance in their music videos. Besides music videos, hip rolling within hip hop culture is most commonly practiced among the youth at parties, or shared on websites such as youtube or facebook. Hip rolling can be performed over fast or slow rap or contemporary R&B music. Hip rolling has evolved into a more complex form of belly dancing over the years. With both men and women performing the dance, popping and locking of the upper body while hip rolling is one variation of the dance.

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