The Week of February 19th, 2006: IN BLACK HISTORY
DJ KOOL HERC
CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Did you know that a man named Clive Campbell who was born in 1955 in Kingston, Jamaica is The Father of Hip Hop?

Why don't you?

Kool Herc emigrated to the Bronx in 1967 when he was 12 years old. While attending Alfred E. Smith High School he spent a lot of time in the weight room. That fact coupled with his height spurned the other kids to call him Hercules.

His first deejay gig was as his sister's birthday party. It was the start of an industry. 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, the address of Herc's family and the location of the recreation room where he would throw many of his first parties as the DJ.

Herc became aware that although he new which records would keep the crowd moving, he was more interested in the break section of the song. At this point in a song, the vocals would stop and the beat would just ride for short period. His desire to capture this moment for a longer period of time would be a very important one for hip hop.

Herc would purchase two copies of the same record and play them on separate turntables next to each other. He would play the break beat on one record then throw it over to the other turntable and play the same part. Doing this over and over, he could rock any house in NY. (Not to mention it being an early form of looping that would be made easier through electronic sampling.)

He would dig in crates and look everywhere to find the perfect break beat for his parties. He didn't care what type of music, because he only needed a small section of a song for his purposes.

His first professional DJ job was at the Twilight Zone in 1973. He wanted to get into another place called the Hevalo, but wasn't allowed yet...read more.

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