Scholars increasingly acknowledge the influence of African musical traditions on U.S. hip-hop, but there is still no clear, integrated account of how rhythm, sampling, and cultural negotiation work together to shape the genre. This narrative review addresses that gap by examining African musical elements as core organizing principles within hip-hop and tracing how they continue to operate in digital and algorithm-driven environments. Drawing on scholarship from musicology, cultural studies, ethnomusicology, and digital humanities, which uses computational and digital methods to analyze cultural and musical patterns, the review brings these conversations into dialogue rather than treating them in isolation. It highlights three connected dynamics: the blending of African rhythmic frameworks with Western musical forms, sampling as a technologically updated expression of African American aesthetic practice, and the role of both in shaping identity and social critique. The analysis shows that African-derived rhythms remain structurally central to hip-hop, that sampling acts as a form of cultural memory in the digital age, and that tensions between continuity and global fusion persist within platform-based music economies. This review argues for understanding hip-hop not merely as a product of African influence but as an ongoing site where diasporic musical logic adapts to and sometimes resists technologically mediated cultural systems.