![]() ![]() He hosted popular block parties and created Kool Herc & the Herculoids with Clark Kent. At the party, before an appreciative audience of neighborhood teenagers, DJ Kool Herc performed his “Merry-Go-Round” technique of isolating and prolonging the breakbeat sections of songs (the drum patterns used in interludes - breaks - between sections of melody) by switching between two record players.ĭJ Kool Herc became a folk hero in the Bronx as his parties attracted larger and larger crowds. By then, the teenage Campbell had assembled his own massive sound system, along with an eclectic record collection that included selections from James Brown and the Incredible Bongo Band. On August 11, 1973, Campbell hosted a back-to-school fundraising party for his sister, Cindy, at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the west Bronx - and he is widely credited with birthing hip-hop on that day. Campbell involved himself in the city’s emerging graffiti scene - which had arrived after originating in Philadelphia - and assumed the tag name Kool Herc. Campbell arrived in the Bronx during the reign of feel-good disco music, which intersected with the civil rights era and the dire financial straits of a New York City that was facing a declining population and labor unrest. In Kingston, Campbell had become infatuated with the reggae and dub music that blared from giant portable sound systems, and DJs who toasted or talked over instrumental tracks. In this exclusive excerpt from “ The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop,” Abrams tells how the infamous 1977 New York City blackout helped electrify a sound and cultural force.Ĭlive Campbell migrated as a child with his family from Jamaica to the United States in the late 1960s, leaving one country roiled by political instability for another. Abrams traces the music’s humble beginning in the Bronx and DIY block parties to some of the most popular music in the world today. Journalist Jonathan Abrams spent the last four years compiling an enlightening, entertaining, and deeply researched history of hip-hop. ![]()
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