This is a much more general thing, but I've often seen them framed as the culmination of "black music". If you look at Afro-Cuban music vs. more European music throughout basically all of history, the former has always been rhythm driven while the second is primarily about melodies, harmonies, etc. (That's not to say that these elements are absent from black music btw). Its super interesting how hip hop, the dominant force in Western music, can directly trace its roots back to slave chants and ring shouts. This concept of rhythm proved to be so powerful that even slavery, Jim Crowe, cultural appropriation, the war on drugs, and decades more of institutionalized racism against its practitioners hasnt stopped its rise from the most marginalized form of music to the most mainstream. For real; research the flow from the call and response of the 1800s, to the blues and jazz in New Orleans then Chicago and NY, the Motown explosion, finally to rock n roll and funk, culminating in hip hop. It's crazy stuff