DJ Kool Herc

Clive Campbell emigrated to the Bronx from Kingston, Jamaica with his parents and later became known as DJ Kool Herc. He emulated the sound system parties and included MCs to speak over the music he played on his turntables in the same way the toasters did in Jamaica. In 1973 Kool Herc held an event for his sister, Cindy, a back-to-school party at the rec room in their building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. It was here that a musical revolution began when DJ Kool Herc adapted his style to funk and soul. He developed a method for keeping the music going at the breaks in the records. Because these breaks were short, he extended them by jumping the needle (where the term “hip hop” came from). This created one long break (the breakbeat) for the b-boys to show off their skills. Herc also brought the Jamaican style of calling out names of the dancers, a rhythmical patter that became known as “rapping.” Kool Herc, his partner, Coke LaRock and their dancers became known as Kool Herc and the Herculoids. The Jamaican influence has remained in hip hop, from Run DMC collaborating with the dancehall star Yellowman in the 1980s, to Black Star’s 1998 Definition, where Mos Def “brings a dancehall indebted style to his flow.”