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Kool Herc
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Kool Herc's real name is Clive Campbell, and he was born on 16 April 1955 in Kingston, Jamaica. As a child he heard the sound systems at neighbourhood parties there and the DJs who talked over the music, so-called toasting. In 1967 the family moved to the Bronx in New York, to an apartment building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. At school friends called him Hercules because of his height and build, and as a member of a graffiti crew he took the name Kool Herc.
Music and breakthrough
In August 1973 he organised a party with his sister Cindy in the recreation room of that apartment building. That party is often regarded as the beginning of hip hop. Herc played hard funk records, such as those by James Brown, and noticed that the dancers loved the break most of all: the short section in which mainly the drums can be heard. With two copies of the same record on two turntables he switched back and forth, so that those few seconds grew into rhythms lasting minutes. His announcements and encouragements through the microphone were a forerunner of rapping.
Influence
He called the dancers b-boys and b-girls, words that are still used for breakdancers. Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash quickly adopted his way of spinning and built on it. Unlike them, Herc did not make records himself in the first years of hip hop. He is therefore remembered mainly as the man who laid the foundation. In 2023 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Listening
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 6: Fear of a Black PlanetNL Reader
- Mixtape 7: The 1980sNL Reader
- Mixtape 7: The 1980sNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Early hip hop Genre
On 11 August 1973, Kool Herc, who knew the sound systems of Kingston, DJed at a party on Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx.